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I 










THE BACHELOR GIRL 


^ ||:omX of tTxc X400 



AVILLIAM HOSEA BALLOU 

AUTHOR OP “A RIDE ON A CYCLONE” 



• ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

H. CLAY COULTAUS 


OF 

^' '23 1890 


^^SHiNGfoX^* 


NEW YORK 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

150 WoiiTH Street, corner Mission Place 


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Copyright, 1890, by 
JOHN W. LOVELL 

[All rights rese)'veCL'\ 


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TROW'8 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY^ 
^fW YORK, 




TO 

MY MUSE. 


Had I the breath that burns in the simoon, 
Scorching and beating Sahara at will, 

Blasting the desert, scourging the nomad, 
Raging forever and never still, 

Fast would I rise to thee on the mountain, 
Drying the rivers in passing by. 

Burning the forests, burning the meadows, 
Panting, exhausted, with thee to fly. 

Had I the power that whirls in the cyclone. 
Twisting cities and homes from their place. 
Flooding the rivers, wrecking the valleys. 
Rushing forever and e’er through space. 

Fast would I bound to thee on the mountain,. 

Smiting the earth with thunders and flame, 
Yearning to greet thee, and to caress thee. 
Rending the skies in calling thy name. 

Fiercer than storms that rage on the ocean. 
Dashing ships on the pitiless sands. 

Vaster than floods that swell the Ohio, 

Bearing to tropics bordering lands. 

Is the mad love for thee on the mountain. 
Pulsing, surging, inflaming the veins. 

Simoon and cyclone, come with thy pinions 
And of a whirlwind give me the reins. 

WM. H. BALLOU. 



PREFACE. 


Certain forces are at work shaping the 
destiny of the present civilization such as 
were unknown in any other age of the 
world. The result is a more extraordinary 
civilization than the best elements of past 
ages combined could rival. This is due, 
first to the development of science ; and sec- 
ond, to the applications of science as fast as 
it is evolved ; and lastly, to the adaptation 
of the scientific method in all forms of com- 
mercial and business life. That type of fic- 
tion which accurately reflects the data and 
trend of ^modern civilization alone can hope 
to survive as the mirror for future genera- 
tions of what is to-day. 


8 


PRBFACB. 


The mere biography of one or even sev- 
eral individual types is not sufficient to sat- 
isfy the masterful intellect with which more 
and more of mankind are becoming en- 
dowed. The novel must reveal the data of 
a mass of mind moving in one channel, and 
endow the leading characters with the entire 
product. In order to bring the forces and 
motives governing a mass of mind, such as 
the financial mass, the scientific mass, the in- 
surance mass, the statesmanship mass, or 
any other mass of mind moving in one chan- 
nel of thought, down to the comprehension 
of all, even the children, only the stupendous 
plot will suffice to maintain uninterrupted 
interest and prevent the i-eader from skip- 
ping paragraphs and pages. ^ 

In presenting a new type of fiction, such 
as “ A Ride on a Cyclone,” “ The Bachelor 


PREFACE, 


9 


Girl,” etc., with new types of hero, heroine, 
and plot, the data of this, the greatest, 
grandest civilization is utilized — not the 
data of any individual life, but that of a 
mass of minds moving in one channel of 
thought. Thus the characters are made 
composites of a mass of people, made to 
speak and act for the mass, not as any one 
individual of it. 

Fiction should satisfy the longings of the 
human mind, achieve its ideals and broaden, 
by example, the intellect. It is to be hoped 
that the characters herein depicted so live 
and move and have their being that the 
youths who read of them may be helped to 
grow into a grand satisfying existence. 
They who have the attention of the youths 
of this age will mould the destiny of the 
next. W. H. B. 


« 




THE BACHELOB eiRL. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE TRANSLATION OF MISS DOUVRE. 

Miss Lily Carolyn Douvre indignantly 
scanned the man at her side, as a student 
might scan the blank verse of Virgil who 
would rather be kicking a foot-ball on the 
campus than receive a hundred-mark for 
proficiency in Latin. She urged her pow- 
erful bay horse at a speed which attracted 
the attention of the mounted police, who 
would have either halted the pair for a stern 
lecture or arrested them outright but for the 
respect they entertained for Douvre senior. 


12 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL, 


one of the wealthiest members of New 
York’s Fourteen Hundred,* a retired coal 
merchant, by the way, and a plebeian ac- 
quisition of the aristocracy, who had al- 
ways been liberal in his donations to the 
officers of the law. The man by her side 
managed to keep abreast with her with diffi- 
culty. 

Why ride so furiously. Miss Douvre ? ” 
he. implored. “The police are watching us, 
and besides, my horse is jet black. You 
must be aware that a black horse has not so 
much endurance in limb, blood, muscle, and 
wind as a bay horse.” 

“ Right glad am I that ’tis so, my Lord 
Hector. Do you not. see it is dark already 

* The Czar of New York’s aristocracy, Mr. Ward McAllister, 
has recently increased his original “Four Hundred” by one 
thousand names. He did it because every city and town in 
the country constituted a local Four Hundred in imitation, and 
he felt that the reputation of the metropolis was endangered. 



*• ^VHY RIDE SO 


FURIOUSLY, raSS 


DOUVRE ? ’’ 


HE IMPLORED. 








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THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


13 


owing to the gathering storm; that I am 
the only woman visible on the Central 
Park track; that I may be compromised 
by this unexpected escapade ? ” 

But Lily — Miss Douvre, I love you. I 
desired to tell you of my passion on this 
homeward ride. Promise to marry me and 
there can be no compromising you.” 

Was it for this, my Lord, you detained 
me at the north end of the park to view the 
proposed World’s Fair site, that odious 
gathering to be, perhaps, of the masses 
who are to overrun our city, put up the 
price of living five hundred per cent., turn a 
rabble into the West End District, 'which 
was sacredly set apart for the Fourteen 
Hundred, and trample down this very park ? 
For shame, my Lord ! It is my money 
you desire, not me.” 




14 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


‘‘ Suppose it be your money, as well as 
your charming person, I want, what then ? 
Isn’t money a desirable thing for two young 
people with which to begin keeping the es- 
tablishment of an earl ? ” 

The lady turned upon him in superb 
scorn. Flushed as were her cheeks by 
reason of violent exercise, their tinge deep- 
ened with almost uncontrollable anger at 
this brutal frankness. 

“You speak so frankly, my Lord, that I 
may be pardoned for a frank reply. The 
assurance of these broken-down relicts of the 
nobility in attempting to utilize American 
heiresses to pay their gambling debts, and 
roof over their decayed, antiquated palaces 
is beyond compare. My father recently took 
the pains to inform me. somewhat concerning 
your affairs. So long as you conducted 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


15 


yourself as we deem a gentleman should in 
this young republic I have continued to tol- 
erate your society, and have endeavored to 
treat you with that consideration due to a 
scion of a noble house. There is no further 
incentive for such toleration and treatment. 
My father told me, from information and be- 
lief, as the courts say, that the very horse you 
ride, and of whose physiological structure 
you discourse so eloquently, your clothes, 
your style in general, are obtained through 
advances by a broker,* to whom on your 
marriage, presumably with me, is to be reim- 
bursed at one hundred per cent. Bah ! how 
absurd in you to talk of love ! Had you 
been honest, told the truth, and advanced 
a proposition of marriage in business form, 

* See article, by the author, in the New York Tribune of Oc- 
tober 18, 1885, entitled “Borrowing Money to Marry.” 


16 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


such proposition might, at least, have re- 
ceived respectful consideration. I should 
then have continued to be polite to you. 
Since you have tried to humbug us, I tell 
you plainly, the fortune I possess, if I were 
so base as to desire it, and which I do not, 
would purchase a prince. A mere earl, for- 
sooth ! You must read the papers and know 
that the precedent has recently been estab- 
lished as to what figure will bring down a 
prince. As a matter of fact, I do not mind 
telling you that I am an eccentric, and desire 
nothing better than a rich but respectable 
American.” 

‘‘ My dear Miss Douvre, your remarks 
show more rage because you are compro- 
mised than, discretion. You may or may 
not live to regret them. Some people die 
earlier than others. You are compromised 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


17 


socially to all tlie world by this escapade 
at night with a man, unaccompanied by ^ 
either coachman or chaperone. Unless you 
marry me or have an immediate announce- 
ment of marriage to me promulgated, the , 
club -men and local gossips will have a feast 
of scandal for many a day.” 

“Stop, my Lord! Further insult is un- 
necessary. No one can possibly know of 
this affair unless you repeat it. In that 
case, I shall see to it that your backing for 
an heiress by a broker and the terms thereof 
are made public ; then your prospects of 
further social recognition will be blighted.” 

“ Oh, well, that beats me on that score. I 
am not one to sacrifice myself to that extent, 
even to win you. But let us examine the 
question from another standpoint. I should 

say in general that the wife of an earl, no 
2 


18 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


matter what the cost, would have a more 
pleasing sense of security in society in all the 
courts of the world than a mere daughter of 
a retired coal merchant. Further, you say I 
love your money, not you. Granted. Your 
money is a part of you, isn’t it ? Suppose 
you believed I love you on account of your 
glossy black hair, would you then marry 
me ? ” 

^‘That would be different.” 

“ Suppose you were certain I love you in 
consideration of your perfect figure, would 
you then marry me ? ” 

That is another question altogether.” 

‘‘Suppose you knew I love you because of 
your glorious brown eyes ? ” 

“ I should consider the matter.” 

The girl did not see the trap into which 
she was being led. The rapid riding, the 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


19 


tlioughts suggested by the events of the ride 
may have distracted her mind from the con- 
versation somewhat. For the first time she 
turned to read his face beneath an electric 
lamp, to determine if these were implied 
compliments, and if so, if he might possibly 
be in earnest. Her vanity, that natural her- 
itage of the sex, of. which she actually had 
but little, w'as being stirred. 

“Suppose you were certain I love you, 
because I think you are the most beautiful 
creature on earth, would you then marry 
me?” 

He had sounded the deepest depths of 
feminine vanity at last. She turned on him, 
momentarily softened. The man smiled in 
ill-concealed triumph. “ Did I believe that, 
I might give up my project of an American 
alliance, my one eccentricity.” 


20 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


My lord had won his triumph, but in his 
next breath he threw it away ; he made a fa- 
tal mistake. He clinched the argument, as 
masterful as even Socrates might have de- 
sired, and beat a woman in discussion. In 
one fell swoop, as it were, he descended from 
the highway of possible success to the rout of 
utter defeat. “ My dear gii’l,” he remarked, 
triumphantly, ^‘what then does it matter 
which thing about you attracts me, so long 
as you possess an irresistible attraction? 
You have admitted that once you believe I 
love you because of your glossy black hair, 
or perfect figure, or glorious brown eyes, or 
because to my thought you are the most 
beautiful of women — once you believe any 
of these and you might be persuaded to 
marry me. Now, isn’t your wealth as much 
^a part of you, as much your exclusive prop- 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


21 


evty as your hair, figure, eyes, or beauty ? 
You stand convicted. Knowing that I love 
you on account of that most charming attri- 
bute of woman — wealth — can you not give 
me a word of hope ? ” 

She turned on him fiercely. “Monster,” 
she cried, “ begone from my sight ! I will 
not be disgraced by having you near me on 
the track. I shall stick to my eccentricity,” 
she said mockingly, seeing the chagrin on 
his features. “ I go to my rich but respect- 
able American ” 

At that instant the pair were midway be- 
tween two electric lights, situated some dis- 
tance apart, enveloped in darkness so dense, 
owing to the bursting of a furious storm, 
that even near objects were invisible. Sud- 
denly the horses reared and screamed with 
fright. Then some black object, like a me- 


22 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


teor, struck both horses simultaneously and 
killed them instantaneously. A howl of 
pain from the man, and a screech of abject 
fright from the girl, rang through the air. 
The mounted police and late equestrians 
rushed to the spot. The horses were found 
frightfully gored. My Lord Hector lay on 
the grass, some twenty feet away, moaning, 
but evidently more frightened than hurt. 
The j^olice attempted to assist him, but he 
repulsed them. 

“ Look after Miss — the lady,-’ he roared, 
— n it, she may be hurt.” As his lord- 
ship awoke to the possibilities the loss of her 
life meant to him he became frantic. 

“Did you say there was a lady, sir?” 
asked a policeman, hurriedly. 

“ Of course ! To be sure ! Don’t you 
see her horse ? ” 


TBE BACHELOR GIRL. 


23 


“ Could she have walked home, sir ? ” 
Certainly not. Her horse was killed by 
that accursed meteorite. She must have 
been thrown as far as was I.” 

Lanterns were brought, but no trace of 
the lady was visible, not so much as her hat 
or a bit of ribbon. The disappearance was ab- 
solute, proved unaccountable, and irrefutable. 
Twenty men were on the scene of disaster in 
less than a minute after it occurred. She 
could not have escaped without being seen. 

Meantime his lordship was busily think- 
ing, and almost distracted. He at least had 
a heart sufficient to deplore the occurrence 
on humane grounds, to say nothing of what 
it might mean to him. It occurred to 
him that if she had escaped and run home 
to avoid detection, here was a chance to win 
her gratitude. The police surrounded him 


24 


THE BAGHELOn GIRL. 


and assisted him to arise. When placed 
against a tree he was able to stand. A lit- 
tle examination showed that he was only 
suffering from a temporary loss of all his 
breath. The police cross-examined him. 

Who was the lady, sir ? ” asked one. 

“ I decline to answer.” 

“ But you must. All the evidences are 
here to show that you had a companion, pre- 
sumably a lady. There is a dead horse, with 
the torn remains of a side-saddle on its back. 
Unless you can throw some light on this 
mysterious case you stand in danger.” 

“ I will only admit that I was riding with 
a lady. A mysterious calamity overtook 
our horses. I am surprised that I live to 
tell of it. What has become of my com- 
panion is as much, and infinitely more, my 
concern than yours. Tell me what caused 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


25 


tlie calamity and I will tell you who she 
was, for I believe her dead, carried away 
by the mysterious object from the heavens 
which gored the horses. You can see it was 
not lightning, since there has been none, and 
electrical evidences are not visible on the 
animals. I believe it was a meteorite.” 

The policemen consulted. It was evident 
that no human agency had caused the disas- 
ter. They began to doubt if there was 
really a lady in the case. What is your 
name, sir ? ” demanded a sergeant of police. 

“ Lord Jasper Hector, Earl of Bathgate, 
Devonshire, England.” 

The name was not unknown ; he was be- 
lieved. 

What are your reasons for withholding 
the name, which might lead to some clue ? ” 
My reasons are perfectly proper. The 


26 


THE BACHELOR CTRL. 


lady was of such high standing that to re- 
veal her name would bring down w^orld-wide 
gossip on an innocent head and proud home. 
Besides, it is my place to apprise the family. 
If the lady does not return to her home, the 
case will then properly come before the 
police. The inspector will be at once ap- 
prised ; that stands to reason. Here is my 
card and address. If I do not find her at 
home, if she is missing to-morrow, I stand 
ready to appear and repeat to the depart- 
ment what I have already explained.” 

The police were far from satisfied, but 
they did not feel warranted to hold the man 
in the absence of a corpse and of conclusive 
evidence that there really was a woman in 
the case. His lordship walked away. The 
belated equestrians hurried to their dinners. 

The police, left to themselves, saw the 


THE BAGHELOU GIRL. 


27 


necessity of further action. They knew, as 
well as anything is ever positively known, 
that the lady, if there were one, could not 
have escaped and gone home. Not a mo- 
ment had elapsed before several of them had 
been on the scene of disaster where they had 
noted everything. The sudden stoppage of 
the horse was sufficient to have thrown the 
lady a long distance, at least twenty or 
thirty feet. She would have been too seri- 
ously hurt to have got up and walked away. 
That there had been a lady in the case be- 
came more and more evident upon examina- 
tion. To suppose that his lordship was out 
riding, leading a lady’s horse all saddled, 
was too much for belief. The morning 
would surely convince his lordship of the 
lady’s absence, and the affair would have to 
be fully investigated. 


28 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


With these self-evident facts in view no 
time was to be lost. An extra detail of offi- 
cers was summoned. The coroner was noti- 
fied ; detectives were placed on the ground. 
The park for hundreds of feet was thor- 
oughly explored. Surgeons from the Belle- 
vue Hospital were summoned to examine 
the horses. The frightful lacerations led 
them at once to coincide with the meteorite 
theory ; there was nothing else to report, no 
other tenable evidence. 

Along with the coroner came a bevy of 
I’eporters. The police, detectives, surgeons, 
coroner, his assistants, and the reporters stu- 
died the case until past midnight; all was 
excitement, and the biggest sensation of the 
times threatened to be inaugurated. Re- 
porters were detailed to find the Earl, and 
get interviews in addition to the reports of 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL. 


29 


his testimony given to the police. The cor- 
oner, true to the traditions of his office, felt 
called upon to do his duty. He impanelled 
a jury on the spot, and secured a verdict in 
time for the morning papers, if for nothing 
more, to help the reporters weave a sensa- 
tion. 

The coroner’s jury declared, having no re- 
mains de facto to sit upon, but de jure^ be- 
cause of the alleged translation of the sub- 
ject, that some woman, unbeknown to this 
said jury, came to her death by a meteor, 
which carried her body into the infinitudes 
of honioloidal space.” 

The coroner mopped his brow uneasily 
when he signed his name and affixed his seal 
of office to this document ; but a reporter of 
the Tall Tower newspaper, fresh from col- 
lege, who had penned the report of the juiy. 


30 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


assured him it was the right stuff,” as he 
had read it in some one of the works of 
Richard A. Proctor or Herbert Spencer. 
He wasn’t certain which great authority 
gave birth to the expression of “ the infini- 
tudes of homoloidal space,” and his paper 
later discharged him from its sanctum sanc- 
torum of accuracy, fearing the coroner might 
repeat the fact of the uncertainty of the re- 
porter in this important matter, to the detri- 
ment of the daily. “ Remember hereafter,” 
said the editoi’, as he bowed out the poor 
collegian, it was Proctor who said it, and 
that a man who represents the Tall Tower 
must always be accurate.” 

It was cruel to send him out in such a 
night. The storm which swept away nearly 
every vestige of civilization on Coney Isl- 
and was in progress. 


CHAPTER 11. 


THE FAMILY OF DOUVRE. 

Mr. John Douvre sat in his smoking-room. 
The very large apartment was exquisitely fin- 
ished in Russia-leather designs, with heavy 
oak-chairs to match, cushioned and backed 
with the same material. There were many 
gentlemen with him, deeply interested in 
exchanging views upon architecture and 
other subjects. A centre-table, the top of 
which comprised a slab of black, polished 
marble, was covered with boxes of the 
choicest cigars, of varied brands, sizes, and 
shades, from which the men occasionally 
made selections. Mr. Douvre was quiescent, 
seeming to listen, yet seeiifing to think. A 


32 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


flunkey appeared at the door and announced, 
My Lord Hector ! ” 

“ Ask him to wait in the drawing-room.” 

The celebrated artist Sarsan seemed an- 
noyed by the interruption, but he continued 
to descant on the topic on which he had been 
speaking. 

“The New York home,” he observed, “is 
quite unlike that of any other American city. 
Its dwellings have no environing lawns, but 
are so massed together that one wall sup- 
ports the ends of two roofs. No well-regu- 
lated household knows the names of the oc- 
cupants of the adjoining dwellings, and such 
knowledge would deprive every New Yorker 
of the absolute privacy which is the greatest 
charm and inducement to metropolitan life. 

“ Exterior effects in the dwelling archi- 
tecture of the city have not been extensively 


THE BACHELOR CTRL. 


33 


attempted, and only in the uptown districts, 
where the architect has perhaps designed an 
entire square, and has made each front har- 
monize with each and all of the adjoining 
fronts. The Western man, in w^hose home 
one is entertained, often takes pride in tell- 
ing one that ‘ the elegant mansion which can 
be seen through field-glasses on the adjoining 
lot is the property of Mr. So-and-So, and it 
cost him so many hundred thousands.’ ” 

Pretty large lawns, those,” said Mr. 
Douvre, laughing. 

Sarsan elevated his eyebrows slightly, and 
continued : 

While architectural effects in Western 
provincial cities are too often regarded only 
from a stand-point of cost, those of the metrop- 
olis are rated from the actual amount of lux- 
urious home comforts and taste to be found 
*3 


34 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


in the interiors. The provincial homes are 
usually judged, and the importance of the 
citizen is correspondingly ranked, first, by 
the cost ; second, by the size of the exterior 
and the rooms ; and lastly, as is unfortunately 
too frequently the case, by the display of 
intense conti*asting colors of the furniture, 
which sometimes cause the drawing-rooms to 
resemble furniture warerooms. Contrasting 
colors in a house indicate a lack of artistic cul- 
ture ; harmonious colors speak of refinement. 

“ Only artistic eifects are studied in behalf 
of New York’s palatial residences. No mat- 
ter how ignorant, untutored, and uncultured 
the barbarian may be who arrives in New 
York with untold millions, with which to set 
up an establishment and become one of the 
aristocracy, he can neither buy nor drive any 
reputable firm to inharmonious taste.” 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL. 


35 


Mr. Douvre, being one of this species, 
winced, but the artist, not knowing the fact, 
proceeded : 

“ The New York furnisher is polite, and 
listens without exhibiting a shadow of the 
contempt he feels to the monstrosities the 
barbarian demands ; but he will never yield 
to any deflection from the standards of taste. 
First, there is the architect who designs the 
residence. He will exhibit his specimens of 
styles from which to make selection, or will, 
if consistent to taste, design the structure 
from the desires suggested; but once a de- 
sign is selected, he will make no alteration 
whatever, unless the entire house is changed 
to harmonize. He would lose his reputation 
as an architect if an inharmonious flaw were 
detected. His rivals would reap a harvest 
from his error, and errors in architectural de- 


36 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


signs are unpardonable. The contractor is 
responsible for every detail of architectural 
design, and he leaves the structure in readi- 
ness for the furnishers.” 

“ There is no doubt on that score,” thought 
Douvre. 

“ The carpet man is next consulted. He 
examines each story, and notes, for instance, 
that the first story is finished in light oak, 
the second in dark oak, the third in cherry, 
and the fourth in ash, or that the entire 
house is finished with most costly woods. 
He makes a memorandum in each room of 
each story to ascertain what the painters 
and decorators have done for the ceilings 
and walls. Having complete memoranda — ■ 
since no two floors are alike, and seldom 
two rooms, though each harmonizes with all 
the others — he proceeds to carpet the house 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


37 


in harmony as his data directs. He will 
take no dictation in this matter except in 
the species of carpets desired, whether vel- 
vet, or Brussels, etc. His reputation helps 
to make each house what it is, and he will 
permit no living man to tarnish his reputa- 
tion. The furnisher has the next entry. 
He must complete the harmonies already es- 
tablished by the architect, painters, decora- 
tors, and carpet-man. He will only desire 
to know the price the occupant will pay. 
He examines the entire house as minutely 
as did the carpet-man, and takes away more 
memoranda because of the carpets. Every 
piece of furniture he puts in the house must 
positively harmonize in colors with every 
other piece, the carpets, ceilings, and walls. 
There is no alternative; take his dictum 
or look elsewhere. He is a part of the ma- 


38 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


chinery of house construction, each part of 
which is a specialist who has given his life 
to the study of harmonies, each in his de- 
partment. The owner, not having made a 
study of the architectural arts, is not quali- 
fied to determine what is needful ; his place 
is to pay the bills. The furnisher will not so 
much as change a chair. His chairs, settees, 
stools, and whatsoever, with carpets, ceil- 
ings, walls, and woodwork, form a harmoni- 
ous picture, as beautiful as a painting. To 
introduce a foreign element, such as an odd, 
wayfaring chair, would be, to his mind, 
worse than putting a cow’s head on a horse. 
Will he, for your gold, disgrace his reputa- 
tion for artisticity? Not he.” 

“ The only man who ignores harmonies 
is the plumber. He plumbs only for the 
plumber,” ejaculated Mr. Douvre. All 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


30 


laughed, relieved to see that the host was 
not disgruntled at these pictures of his own 
experiences. 

“There can be no doubt that the culture 
of the members of the machine of archi- 
tectural construction made New York resi- 
dences the eye-inspiring, luxurious-comfort 
palaces they are. Many a New Yorker has 
lost his appetite in the provincial dining- 
room of some mushroom magnate, where 
contrasting colors prevailed and glared his 
eyes out of joint. The New Yorker’s din- 
ing-room, his service, and his surroundings 
compel one to eat. Even the confirmed 
dyspeptic who enters here can be no excep- 
tion. The New Yorker’s home was not 
built as a subject about which to boast as 
to its cost, but to enjoy life at its best, to 
give his friends real entertainment, and to 


40 


TEE BACHELOR OIRL. 


educate the refined senses of his children. 
The provincial, particularly in newer sec- 
tions of the country, is not so advanced. 
He is beset by beasts of trade, who, know- 
ing the love of a mushroom magnate to 
boast, load his home with gaudy gewgaws, 
fill his drawing-room with furniture of all 
high, mixed colors and descriptions, each 
piece, with apparent unconsciousness, having 
the tag of its high cost left conveniently at- 
tached. His entertainments to friends are 
notorious for a lavish waste of high-priced 
wines and foreign-named viands, of which 
the participants are ignorant, and who, with 
the magnate, wonder why the caterer does 
not place all the ^ stuff ’ on the table at 
once rather than serve it in courses. Cam- 
panini was, doubtless, the only artist who 
traversed this continent in both directions 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


41 


without destroying his voice and digestion. 
He was accompanied by his own GhefP 
The artist paused, and Mr. Douvre be- 
gan to breathe again. The fact was that the 
Douvre family had acquired a knowledge of 
harmonies and taste in all these things by 
actual experiencie, and profited by it. Mr. 
Douvre, when he deserted the Pacific coast 
to reside in New York, and become a mem- 
ber of the metropolitan aristocracy, sud- 
denly exhibited discretion. A man who has 
acquired a fortune by sheer ability, through 
years of energetic toil, can be discreet. An 
illiterate person who suddenly finds the 
dame in a gold lode, and emerges from a 
hole in the ground a hundred millionnaire, 
cannot learn discretion under twenty-five 
years, if ever. Douvre had listened to the 
architect and his successors in the house- 


4:2 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


building with a wise look, gave an affir- 
mative answer to all suggestions, a carte 
hlanche for everything, and paid the bills 
as a matter of fact. No one ever denied the 
perfection of his great residence. By his 
policy of discretion, carried out faithfully 
in every move, he won immediate entry into 
the most select circles of metropolitan aris- 
tocracy. His home was so pleasing to all 
the senses, so luxuriously comfortable, that 
although for years, if ever, he could not 
personally enjoy it, the aristocracy, or rather 
plutocracy, of both sexes and all ages, speedi- 
ly took pleasure in it. 

“ My Lord Hector ! ” again announced the 
flunkey. 

“Ask him to come in here; I had quite 
forgotten him.” 

His grace entered the smoking-room. He 



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THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


43 


was deathly pale and agitated, but on ac- 
count of the cloud of smoke his condition 
passed unobserved. He glanced at the men 
assembled in positive dismay. He was too 
well-bred to call Mr. Douvre from his friends, 
and, even in this emergency, he feared that 
to do so might expose an accident to the girl 
which had best be kept secret for the present. 
On the other hand, if she were in the house, 
he would be laughed at. There was but one 
thing to do. He must sit down with the 
party and await the departure of the guests, 
whom he knew would soon seek the clubs or 
opera. 

Sit down, my Lord, and smoke with us. 
I should have invited you in at once, but I 
imagined your name was announced to me 
by mistake, that your call was upon the 
ladies.” 


u 


THE BACHELOR QIRL. 


His lordship bowed; he could not trust 
himself to speak. He lighted a cigar. 

‘‘Mr. Sarsan has been describing New 
York architecture, and, incidentally, my 
own experiences as a Pacific coast mushroom 
magnate who located here.” Sarsan looked 
horrified. “ Such being the case, I feel like 
making some personal confessions, and un 
folding my theories, even at the expense of 
exhibiting some family vanity. My daugh- 
ter, Miss Lily, entered this, no doubt, inspiring 
environment when a child. There was some 
blue blood in the family in the more remote 
ancestry. What American can say other- 
wise ? Hid not England, with her best blood, 
quell the savage, and make this country fit 
territory, in part, for a great republic before 
she was turned upon and thrashed for doing 
it? From her and France and Holland is 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


45 


the blue blood which every American can 
trace in his veins. Having entered this home 
as a child, the environment revived the faint 
streak of blue blood in her dainty veins, and 
finally tainted all her system with the hue. 
She grew up to fit every niche in the realm 
of aristocracy. It became her first nature to 
be governed by all the forms, proprieties, 
fashions, and fads that sweep the horizon of 
aristocracy. There is not a scion of the 
proudest American lineage, or the noblest 
foreign house who does not recognize her fit- 
ness to her acquired place ; acquired because 
I purchased it outright. A leading trait of 
the American is adaptation to environment. 
In this country we only recognize possession. 
We are tolerant as to how possession was 
acquired. It isn’t the modus operandi but 
the bird in hand we consider. 


46 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


“ In the South, ancestry may save a man 
from the gallows and jail ; in Philadelphia a 
woman probably belongs to the aristocracy if 
she dresses in black ; the man, if he never 
smiles. But in other parts of America 
wealth alone is the bird in hand.” 

The great, but embarrassed, artist seized 
the pause which followed these frank re- 
marks to put himself at ease. “I had no 
idea, when I was speaking, of the personal 
reference in my remarks, Mr. Douvre, and I 
trust you will pardon my ignorance of your 
past life. That shows how utterly ignoi’ant 
most people are of each other’s histories. It 
is hinted that once upon a time New York 
fell into the hands of a political trust, which, 
while professing to belong to one party, was 
really independent of all parties, being able 
to perpetuate itself by its own votes. It is 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


47 


hinted that the heads of four city depart- 
ments who were the leaders in this trust, had 
each murdered a man and had escaped con- 
viction by ‘hung^ juries, or juries a portion 
of whose members had been corrupted and 
voted for acquittal. It is even said that the 
head of the city government in those years 
had been a proprietor of numbers of liquor 
stores and saloons, which he transferred to 
some other name when elected, and was en- 
abled, by the aid of a real estate ring, to 
which he pandered, to acquire wealth and 
get a standing in our very aristocracy. I 
merely mention these things to show how 
little we know of each other in New York, 
and how short our peoples’ memories are, as 
an excuse for treading on your toes. 

“ What I would be happy to speak con- 
cerning is Miss Douvre. Some people pause 


48 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL. 


to speculate how she got her wonderful 
brown eyes, in conjunction with jet black 
hair. When we see a head of ebony-black 
hair we naturally look for the dark, gray- 
blue eyes of the Scotch-Irish girl, or the dark 
chestnuts of the Hebrew or Indian belle. 
Yet the Douvre phenomenon is to be found 
in America, without the composition of any 
of these types. In nearly all such instances, 
as in this, such a combination of eyes and 
hair are accompanied by a voluptuous, wil- 
lowy form, and the height of the Venus de’ 
Medici. There is a charming grace of lines 
in the arm and each contour, whether in 
limb, or head, or bust, or feature. This 
combination is not becoming to the Venus 
di Milo ; she is a half head too short 
for it. 

‘‘There are two predominant natures in 


V 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


49 


men, the iron will and the yielding. The 
yielding man has spasms of desire for posses- 
sion when he looks at such a girl, and forges 
forward to his doom. The iron- willed man, 
while not so spasmodic, at least acknowledges 
the sensations she inspires.” 

Mr. Douvre acknowledged these compli- 
ments with some pride, and said : “ The N^w 
York fashionable girl leads a fast life, in so 
far as that phrase applies to a multiplicity of 
late hours at operas, theatres, and in social 
life ; but she offsets by equestrianism, plenty 
of sleep, and exercise, the effects of her so- 
cial dissipations. The girl of fashion is sel- 
dom sick or unhealthy, in the metropolis, in 
modern times. She has every advantage 
and few dangers. She can dissipate con- 
siderably, enough to kill once a month a 

country-bred girl. The reason lies in the 

4 


50 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


care taken of her person. She has the Turk- 
ish bath, the manicure, the hair-dresser, the 
French maid, the horse, the victoria, every- 
thing with which to rally all her physical 
energies by day as an oifsef to extreme ten- 
sion in social enjoyments by night. Dancing 
adds strength and grace to her figure. Cham- 
pagne and cigarettes, if indulged in — and 
they are to some extent — might lead to de- 
terioration were it not for her annual ap- 
pearance at the springs, either near home or 
abroad, which rejuvenate her.” 

“ The springs at home are not thus con- 
ducive to health,” observed the inveterate 
punster always present in every assembly, 
however small, and who defends himself by 
alleging that Shakespeare was the father of 
puns. “ They are too cold and rainy. But 
the girl aristocrat seldom endures New York 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


51 


during Lent ; you will find her at the Ponce 
de Leon, in St. Augustine, or at the St. 
Charles Hotel, in New Orleans.” 

‘‘ Miss Lily is careful,” continued the father. 
“She recognizes that the sway of the fashion- 
able woman ends with the loss of a single 
charm. Her idea, carefully nurtured, is to 
be temperate or moderate in all indulgences, 
in order that her every charm should outlive 
her. She don’t care, perhaps, how many 
girls are driven prematurely to the diaig 
store, so long as she never enters its portals. 
She rides a horse with the same end in view, 
not caring, perhaps, how many examples of 
heads smashed on curbstones and trees there 
might be, so long as she is not one of them. 
Not that she is unpossessed of pity or sym- 
pathy, but is not included in these categories, 
may be put down as the reason of her thought 


52 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


— if reason lias any place in tlie economy of 
the female nature. 

“ Of course you know that the pride of 
Miss Lily, as of every girl, no matter what 
her station in life, is her boudoir. One of 
these feminine daily newspaper correspond- 
ents who, somehow, manage to invade the 
very sanctum sanctorums of the American 
homes, no matter how sacred or guarded, 
once described my daughter’s boudoir in a 
noble daily. Here is the account verbatim^ 

The father produced a newspaper clip- 
ping, and read as follows ; 

“ ^ Miss Douvre is the brown-eyed, black- 
haired type of girl,’ says this veracious cor- 
respondent. ^ Her boudoir was furnished 
with a view to forming a becoming back- 
ground for her own loveliness. The walls are 
of rough-finished plaster, colored a pale, dull 





HER BOUDOIR WAS FURNISHED WITH A VIEW TO FORMING A BECOMING 

BACKGROUND. 



THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


53 


gold, with a frieze of dull, gray-green flowers. 
The hangings and carpets are of the same 
dull green, and the curtains are embroidered 
with gold of a tint to match the walls. On 
either side the deep tiled fireplace, with its 
brass andirons, is a wide lounge. That on 
the right is covered with a tiger-skin, the 
head of it lying on the floor and making a 
footstool for the occupant’s slim, slippered 
feet. This and the opposite lounge, which is 
covered with a black bear’s skin, is heaped 
with cushions of a pale gold and red that is 
almost black, it is so dark. At the end of 
one of these lounges stands a tall, scrolled 
brass lamp, with a pale gold shade, and un- 
derneath it a table of pierced copper-work 
from Persia, which holds a set of Persian 
porcelain cups and saucers, and an old Persian 
silver teapot for afternoon tea. On either 


64 : 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


side of the window stands a big, dull red 
earthen jar which holds a tall palm, which is 
almost a tree, and the two form an arch of 
green over the window. There is a long 
Louis Quinze table near the window, fitted 
with all appliances in silver for writing. 
There are book-shelves, many deep, soft 
chairs, and a Louis Quinze cabinet, holding 
some very rare and beautiful specimens of 
Venetian glass, which, with the etchings that 
hang on the wall, are the beauty’s special 
weakness.’ ” 

All laughed at this newspaperial effort 
save Lord Hector, who sat dumb, his face 
showing great mental agony. He was ter- 
ror-stricken, wondering if the guests would 
ever go. 

“ This account reads very well,” continued 
Mr. Douvre, “ and is, doubtless, in the main, 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


55 


correct, though it may be questioned if the 
'girl really has hangings in her room. The 
laws in reference to executions are very 
strict as to the places for such penalties. 
Miss Lily, as may be surmised, is a modern 
bachelor girl. She lives a club life, thougli 
exclusively in her own home. She plays bill- 
iards expertly, though from a motive — and 
motive governs every modern act — as the 
exercise greatly beautifies her arms, besides 
showing her person, in the parental billiard 
hall, to the best advantage.” 

The artist Sarsan observed that he was 
glad to hear the truth concerning this girl. 
“ She is rapidly becoming duplicated 
throughout all fashionable circles,” he re- 
marked. “We should look at her as she is 
and determine her value to this civilization. 
We have had so many heroines in fiction 


56 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL. 


who were lauded as good cooks that there 
seems to be no further public demand for 
that class, first, because the modern young 
man doesn’t desire to marry a cook, but, par- 
ticularly, because to the epicure no woman 
ever could cook. Indeed, where a woman’s 
dinner would be considered dear at fifty 
cents, we pay from ten to fifty dollars and 
upward at Delmonico’s for the privilege of 
being well fed once each day, at least, and 
by a man. Miss Douvre has hobbies, I be- 
lieve, other than those mentioned, such as 
a kennel, and is fond of her dogs in propor- 
tion to their decent behavior and cleanliness. 
She is not known to have tried the experi- 
ment of leading one in the street and stop- 
ping at each lamp-post to extricate the 
chain-wound dog; but this, possibly, may 
have been due to the fact that her self at- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


57 


tractions are sufficient anywhere ; she needs 
no devices to be conspicuous. The fact that 
everywhere on the streets people invariably 
turn to observe her stately beauty demon- 
strates that. The fashion of turning around 
in the streets to observe a beautiful woman, 
and of surrounding and following her in 
crowds in the ball-room and hotel parlors, 
originated in the South in pro-slavery days. 
It is an importation and acquirement in 
New York. 

The standard of measure of the modern 
girl is principally wealth. There is no use 
of disguising or apologizing for the fact. In 
the wonderful progressiveness of this coun- 
try there could be no other result. Let us 
look at what is true. Everything we re- 
garded with contempt a few years ago we 
laud to-day. The modest girl, the plain girl. 


58 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


the good domestic girl, the this, that, and 
the other girl, has dropped out of the race. 
The first question asked by man or woman 
old enough to marry is in reference to the 
wealth involved ; beauty, family, and social 
position are afterthoughts. It could not be 
otherwise in the increasing multiplicity of 
our wealthy homes. Herein the domestic 
girl is sadly out of place. Everything about 
a house to-day is conducted professionally, 
by experts in every department. We want 
our food actually cooked and up to the 
standards of the highest art. Invention has 
revolutionized the processes of cleaning a 
house, lighting it, warming it, airing it, and 
caring for it. The entire machinery for its 
operations, of all descriptions, is located low 
down in the basements, where a feminine 
head of a household is scarcely allowed to 


THE BACHELOR CTRL. 


59 


go, even if she desires. There is the en- 
gineer, the chef^ the modern inventions and 
appliances, of which only experts are cogni- 
zant. A girl might as well hope ever to 
learn how to manage the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, as to conduct the ar- 
rangements of a modern residence. Do not 
let us be so silly as to evade the new era 
and its complete transformation of the aris- 
tocratic home and its effects on the present 
and coming generations. The modern girl- 
aristocrat touches a button for what she 
wants, and there her domestic training must 
necessarily end. It takes a good share of 
her time to learn how to properly live in a 
modern establishment, to say nothing of ac- 
quiring a knowledge of any one department 
of it.” 

“By the way,” observed a presidential 


60 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


possibility present, “it is amazing that an 
incorporation so highly watered as the 
Western Union should be presided over by 
a Kentuckian.” 

“ Oh, well,” remarked the real owner of 
the Western Union, good humoredly, “it is 
only the stock which is watered, not the 
president.” 

The artist took advantage of the pause 
following the laugh and continued : 

“Miss Douvre was a creature of environ- 
ment, a beautiful and rare creature. If you 
ask of what earthly use such a girl is to the 
world, I answer by asking you, in the light 
of a century hence, when all of us have dis- 
appeared, what earthly use the existence of 
any one is ? The fact of existence at all an- 
swers the question. There is nothing more 
beautiful, of which we have knowledge de- 


THE BACHELOR QIRL. 


61 


rived from data, than to live in this world, 
and to the best of onr circumstances and en- 
vironments. However placed in life, the in- 
dividual should appreciate the beautiful 
thing life is according to the light he has. 
Miss Douvre is of very great use to a large 
number of people. Her establishment af- 
fords much occupation to hundreds in all 
walks of life. All the servants in the house, 
all the people in the tailors’ and millinery 
establishments she patronized, the toilet-soap 
and perfumery manufacturers, the leather 
merchants, the confectioner, the butcher, 
grocer, florists, stablemen, gardeners, far- 
mers — the whole circle of human occupa- 
tion — is kept in motion to a large extent 
by this girl ; and you say ‘ what good ? ' 
Perhaps it might be added that but for her 
the New York Central Railway would not 


62 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


run special trains of Wagner cars to Sara- 
toga Springs all the season. 

“ But there is a more inspiring side to the 
question of her existence. It is the pleasure 
she srives to her innumerable associates. 

O 

Men swarm about lier as naturally as mi- 
grating birds around the lofty beacon of a 
light-house, and, no doubt, as many fall, 
crushed and bleeding, since it is destiny and 
law that only one man shall have the prize. 
The bachelor girl is an evolved quasi cynic. 
It could scarcely be otherwise. Marriage to 
her is an ultimatum, and therefore all men 
look alike to her, except as they vary in at^ 
tractions such as physique, looks, wealth, ac- 
complishments, and manners.” 

The men dropped their cigar stubs and 
disappeared at last. Ilis lordship alone re* 
mained, much to Mr. Douvre’s chagrin, who 


V 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


63 


wished to have the night to himself. Lord 
Hector felt, after what he had heard, that 
the disappearance of Miss Douvre would be 
equivalent to taking a section out of Man- 
hattan Island. Such a disappearance was 
destined, if discovered, to cause a world-wide 
commotion. It would affect a large numlier 
of people, each in his own way. 

Now that his lordship was alone with 
Mr. Douvre, only the latter was calm. 

I will neither admit nor deny the pres- 
ence of my daughter in the house,” said Mr. 
Douvre, when questioned. His whole life 
was one of policy. It was the place of the 
flunkey to say whether the girl was “ in ” or 
not, according to what instructions she had 
given. Mr. Douvre did not keep track of 
whims on that score. His lordship then 
related the story of her translation, but the 


64 


THE BACHELOR QIRL. 


man did not so mncli as move a muscle. 
Policy dictated calmness and scorn concern- 
ing all theories and suggestions in reference 
to the accident. 

Mr. Douvre had only one answer: “My 
daughter was well beknown to me ; she 
always did the proper thing, and has done 
it on this occasion. She will retire, as she 
always has done, at the proper hour. I do 
not know where she is at this moment, per- 
haps ” (though he would not admit as much,) 
“ but she is capable of conducting her affairs 
with propriety, and wherever she may be, 
that is exactly what she is doing.” 

Mr. Douvre thanked his lordship for his 
trouble, merely intimated that such inquiries 
had best stop where begun, and bowed him 
out. 

When his lordship had departed the sen- 


V 




8EKI0R l^OUYRE LAUGHED 



THE BACHELOR OIRL, 65 

ior Douvre laughed. To tell the truth, he 
believed that his daughter had played some 
prank on the noble to be well rid of him, even 
at the expense of the loss of her favorite 
horse. Beyond that he did not investigate. 

5 


CHAPTER III. 


AN HEIRESS IN AIR. 

“ Are yon sure we are fastened ? ” 

“It pulls, sir.” 

“ Are you sure we are descending ? ” 

“ It’s so dark we can’t determine, sir ; and 
we are too near the surface to measure by 
the barometer, sir.” 

“Well, captain, haul in, but slowly ; we 
might strike a tree or a ledge of rocks in this 
black darkness.” 

“ Ay, sir.” 

“ I tell you. Captain,” continued Mr. Pegas- 
sus, “ the windlass is the thing aboard of a 
balloon. Those old-time di*ag-ropes, requir- 
ing you to let out all your gas, and ten to 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


67 


one getting entangled in a swamp where 
you have no gas with which to ascend, were 
dangerous to aeronauts. No doubt many a 
fellow lost his life as a penalty for descent 
into some jungle where escape, either on foot 
or in his balloon, was impossible. By means 
of the windlass on board of the balloon we 
can wind up our rope after the drag catches, 
and when near earth can get out or get away 
in the air-ship, according to the necessi- 
ties.” 

Right you are, sir,” muttered the cap- 
tain. 

“ Hi, there, Oaptain ! ” 

“Ay, sir.” 

“What^s the matter with the anemo- 
graph ? ” 

“ What is, sir ? ” 

“It seems to have stopped registering the 


68 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


velocity of the wind, else we are moving 
at a rate of forty miles per hour. That was 
the rate we were moving, according to the 
anemometer, before the drag was cast. Are 
you sure the drag caught ? This machine 
would not stop registering unless we were 
movino; at the same rate as the wind.” 

“ It pulls, Mr. Pegassus, but not so hard as 
it ought, it seems to me, sir.” 

Reel in more rapidly, men. That drag 
was set for some point near New York. If 
it really failed to catch we shall soon be over 
the Atlantic.” 

“ Almost at the end, sir.” 

There was a pause for two minutes, when 
the captain excitedly shouted, “All hands, 
quick, in the name of all that’s sacred ! ” 

“ What’s the matter there ? roared Mr. 
Pegassus. 



HE COULD DIHLY DISTINGUISH SOMETHING. 





THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


“ There is a dead woman attached to this 
guy-rope.” 

What infernal nonsense.” 

Please to come here quick, Mr. Pegassus ! 

The proprietor of the air-ship gazed over 
the rail of the car in horror. Shading his 
eyes with his hands, he could dimly distin- 
guish something. “ Pull her aboard ! ” he 
thundered. 

With great care the men drew aboard the 
remarkable prize of the guy-rope, and passed 
the somewhat stiffened form to Mr. Pegassus, 
who took the girl in his arms, and, in almost 
terror, proceeded to make an examination. 

Turn on the incandescent lights, one of 
you ; Smith there ! Captain, the brandy ! ” 

When the lights, which had not been 
turned on, in order that a landing-place might 
be more distinctly seen, were in full illumina- 


70 


Tee bachelor girl. 


tion, Mr. Pegassiis looked at tke face with an 
exclamation of horror, but said nothing. An 
examination showed a flutter of the heart 
and color on the face. Brandy was applied, 
the hands chafed, and other clumsy methods 
of restoration utilized. At last the form in 
riding-habit stirred, the eyes opened, and a 
blush properly transfused itself as the young 
lady discovered herself in the arms of a 
man. 

“ Miss Douvre, I am sure,” remarked Mr. 
Pegassus, honestly delighted, and relieved be- 
yond measure that his drag had not killed 
this girl. 

She tried to move, but the veins were yet 
devoid of sufiicient flow of blood to encourage 
the muscles. She looked in his face, a little 
frightened. ‘‘You are that other eccentric, 
Mr. Pegassus,” she said, “ whose hobby is 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


71 


aeronautics. I rather think I should like an 
exciting ride in a balloon.” 

Again she tried to release herself, but 
failing in requisite strength yielded, and con- 
tinued to endure his support. The man had 
become quite caJm. He could see that she 
was unaware of her position, her flight 
through space. Would it shock her nerves 
to know the truth ? It made him gasp to 
think of the fearful peril through which she 
had passed — that dangle in space on the end 
of two hundred feet of rope, whirling through 
air at the rate of forty miles per hour — that 
unheard-of feat of being drawn up unharmed 
into a balloon ! The more he thought of it 
the more frightened he grew. To think of 
the trees, the rocks, the possible falls she 
had escaped ! 

He began to tremble, stout-hearted, stout- 


72 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


headed aeronaut that he was. He saw in 
the twinkle of a star that she must never 
know of what had passed, or her present 
predicament. The fright from a revelation 
of the former might kill her, even if re- 
vealed years after. Hysterics might fol- 
low, if she knew she were being hurled 
through air in a balloon. He dared not 
order the guy-rope lowered again for very 
fear of such a revelation to her. Indeed 
the ship must be rapidly ascending. Any 
orders at present, in her hearing, were im- 
possible. He could only hope to secure her 
in his own state-room, descend unbeknown 
to her, and forever keep her in ignorance of 
her rescue and flight in the clouds. 

That other eccentric ? ” he repeated, in 
surprise. 

The lady blushed again. Her mind seem- 


V 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


Y3 

ed still to be at the point of conversation 
with the Earl of Bathgate. She tried to 
reconcile her last-remembered position on 
her bay horse with her presence in the arms 
of Julius Pegassus. Failing in this she felt 
she must say something, and in the end told 
the truth — that impolitic, much -avoided 
course of her sex in matters of love. “I 
was, but a few moments ago, saying to Lord 
Hector that I was an eccentric because I in- 
tend to marry a rich but respectable Ameri- 
can, rather than purchase a foreign title.” 

Mr. Pegassus was amused, and at the same 
time surprised. He saw an opportunity, at 
the expense of rudeness, perhaps, of ascer- 
taining how his guy-rope had caught her, 
and what became of the drag. “ Ah ! and 
so you were with his lordship, or rather, you 
were getting quit of him ? ” 


74 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


^‘To be sure ! We were riding in the park. 
I wonder what became of my bay horse ? ” 
she asked, suddenly. 

Mr. Pegassus was alarmed. He became 
caressing almost, smoothed the glossy black 
hair with his idle hand, looked deep into her 
glorious brown eyes, and noted with emotion 
the peculiar beauty of her face, on which 
the incandescent electric light emitted soft, 
mellow rays. Pie laughed gently. 

Rich but respectable, eh ! That is a new 
one.” 

The lady, too, laughed lightly, and seemed 
to forget the bay horse. “ How rare and 
pure the air is,” she said. “I never expe- 
rienced more delicious breaths.” 

Mr. Pegassus glanced at the barograph, 
and noted a height of two miles and three- 
eighths. Surely this thing must stop. He 





HE 


SMOOTHED THE GLOSSY BLACK HAIK WITH HIS IDLE HAND. 







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it I.- •, ^ ^ ;v-' ’*"-• •**-- -. V 



THE BACHELOR OIRL, 


75 


arose slowly with his fair burden and placed 
her on the small couch in his small state- 
room. “ If you will sleep awhile, Miss 
Douvre, you will feel much better.’' He 
paused a moment, heard her murmur, “ Good 
night,” like some tired child, then saw that 
already she was in that wonderful Land of 
Nod, so near the vast hereafter but in which 
we enter and emerge without ever being 
able to describe it. He .closed the door 
and with a bound sprang to the fore. 

“ Descend, Captain ! ” he thundered. 

“ Aye, sir. Man at the valve, there ! ” 
The air-ship began to drop. The owner 
kept his eye on the barograph. The ship 
descended a mile and a half, when, with a 
sudden roar, it careened and darted east- 
ward with great velocity. 

A hurricane ! ” roared the captain. 


76 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


“ Man at the valve, there, close up ! En- 
gineer, there, more gas ! ” 

Directly the balloon began to ascend 
again until it arose above the terrific storm 
through which descent in safety was deemed 
improbable, and, at all events, unnecessary. 

“ What now, sir ? ” asked the captain, 
when the balloon poised majestically, master 
of the elements. 

“ Continue to g,scend until a current of air 
is reached bearing west or southwest, other- 
wise hold her above the cyclone. Have you 
kept track of the bearings ? 

Aye, sir. We are about fifty miles east 
of the point where we struck the lady, 
sir.” 

“Then we are over the Atlantic. The 
drag struck in Central Park. I cannot 
understand why the lady was not instantly 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


77 


killed. The drag must have struck some- 
thing first, a tree, a rock, or perhaps her 
horse ; if the last named, it’s a dead animal. 
That’s the only theory of her preservation. 
The drag, say, struck the horse head on, ex- 
pended its force and became detached. The 
guy-rope then formed a loop about the girl’s 
body under her arms; the balloon shot up- 
ward and she was spilled of her breath, but 
was saved from collision. How does that 
strike you ? ” 

Admirably, Mr. Pegassus. That is the 
only possible way to account for it.” 

When the barometer indicated an altitude 
of some four miles, the lookout called, “ Cur- 
rent due west.” As the air-ship arose the 
air seemed to become a hurricane, corre- 
sponding with the earth current but mov- 
ing in an opposite direction. The ship was 


78 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


therefore held at the base of the upper cy- 
clone by the engineer for less speed. 

Mr. Pegassus, for an amateur, had made 
wonderful progress in the science of aerial 
navigation. He was even more proficient 
in the science than the most advanced 
schools, because he navigated the air con- 
stantly with his dirigible, or directable, 
balloon. He believed that ah immense air- 
ship, properly outfitted and having some 
comforts for travel, could be managed ac 
well as could be expected or even desired. 

His great wealth lent him wings in his 
favorite exercise, and enabled him to accom- 
plish all that the continental nations, in their 
greed to secure some advantage in warfare 
over each other, achieved in theory and 
experiment. While military ofificers experi- 
mented to the extent of governmental appro- 


V 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


79 


priations, but made little pretence of prac- 
tice on a large scale, lie noted the theories 
and experiments, adopted them, and sailed 
considerably, without any damage of note. 
His balloon was his yacht, but, unlike the 
yacht, was not in danger of collisions with 
its kind. 

Mr. Pegassus modelled his enormous bal- 
loon largely on the principles of Kenard and 
Krebs, M. Gabriel Yon and M. Gaston Tis- 
sandier, the noted French aeronauts. He 
named his ship the Americus^ before her 
construction was begun, as if to inspire him 
in his work. 

The balloon’s gas-bag, or aerostat, con- 
sisted of an envelope of goldbeater’s skin. 
This material is manufactured from the 
large intestines of oxen preserved in salt, 
and when ready for use, soaked for twenty- 


80 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL. 


four hours and afterward washed in several 
waters. For the Jimericus^ Mi*. Pegassus 
selected the finest membranes. The aero- 
stat was cylindrical in form, almost cigar- 
shaped, with rounded ends and somewhat 
flattened sides. Its length was 180 feet, 
diameter 60 feet, with a capacity of some 
108,000 cubic feet; it had a lifting power of 
some five tons when inflated. 

A car of wicker-work, almost as large as 
the aerostat, fortified with brass tubes along 
its entire length, was suspended by a strong 
netting of ribbons, sewed to longitudinal el- 
liptical strips according to a geometrical dia- 
gram. The ribbons covering were fixed 
upon the sides of the balloon to two flexible 
rods, which accurately adapted themselves 
to its form from one end to the other, and 
kept the aerostat in shape. 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


81 


At tlie centre of the car was placed a 
Siemens dynamo of ten horse power. From 
this extended a shaft of steel tubing, which 
served to supply the power to a fly-wheel, 
or fan, or rudder propeller, about fifteen 
feet in diameter, placed exactly on the line 
of the centre of the aerostat, at right angles 
to its length, and on the front end of the car. 
The screw-wheel of a ship, of course, is lo- 
cated at the stern, but the reverse is true of' 
the dirigible balloon. 

The blades of the wheel were set perpen- 
diculaily to their axis, which was itself as 
nearly horizontal as possible. The axis was 
fitted with a ball and socket, so that the pro- 
peller could be swung in any direction, and 
used as a rudder, somewhat after the man- 
ner of a Kunstadter screw-wheel * of a mod- 

*This principle, which is undoubtedly the solution of the 
great problem of aerial navigation, as well as all the additions 


82 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


ern ironclad, by whicb the vessel is turned 
around within its own length. 

It is evident that this wheel could not be 
used precisely in the sense of a propeller; 
its function was principally to rarefy the air 
in front of the balloon, and drive it back- 
ward laterally along the car, so that the 
ship could make headway against the wind, 
or rather, be sucked toward the wind by the 
vacuum produced. 

The motor had a power equal to 2,170 
foot-pounds, driving the propeller, when at 
full speed, at a rate of 540 revolutions per 
minute, but ordinarily at a rate of 180 revo- 
lutions. 

Mr. Pegassus disliked to drive his balloon 
against the wind, as the compression of the 

to aeronautics, and the history of military aeronautics in this 
book, are entirely the inventions and work of the author. — 
The Editors. 


V 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


83 


aerostat naturally drew upon his compressed 
gas. He preferred to explore the myste- 
rious realms of the atmosphere, in search of 
air-currents moving in the direction which 
he desired to take. 

However, he always kept electrical power 
in reserve, since by swinging the propeller 
upward its revolutions increased his speed 
upward, or better, perhaps, the buoyancy of 
the aerostat. The lifting capacity of the 
hydrogen gas of 11,000 foot-pounds was 
thus increased by the lifting capacity of the 
dynamo of 2,170 foot-pounds, making a 
total of 13,170 foot-pounds. 

The Kunstadter screw-wheel of a man-of- 
war can be turned only right or left, which 
is sufficient for the steering of the ship, to 
wheel it around suddenly within its own 
length or quickly swerve it from a near ob- 


84 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


stacle. But for the purposes of an air-ship 
Mr. Pegassus saw in the Kunstadter prin- 
ciple of a screw-wheel the solution of the 
most vexatious obstacles with which the 
dirigible balloon has been confronted. By 
application of this principle, an air -ship 
could be forced down or up, to right or left, 
in any direction whatsoever. He eagerly 
applied the ball and socket idea to the axis 
of the propeller of his own balloon, and the 
Americus obeyed his slightest wish. 

The immense car, extending the entire 
length of the balloon, afforded all the space 
necessary for a laboratory, storage-room, 
small state-rooms, and a promenade. It was 
principally constructed of wicker-work, and 
all of its space was economically utilized. It 
has been stated that the lifting capacity of 
the balloon, without the aid of the propeller, 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


85 


was 11,000 pounds. This was divided as 
follows : 

Balloon with valves, 750 pounds; suspen- 
sion covering, 460 pounds; lateral flexible 
rods, 225 pounds ; car, 660 pounds ; motor 
and machinery, 1,850 pounds ; stoppage ap- 
paratus (anchor and guy-rope), 330 pounds ; 
excursionists and instruments, 1,000 pounds; 
weight of ballast, 2,000 pounds; gas-stor- 
age cylinders, 1,000 pounds; total, 8,275 
pounds. Of course, in addition to these, he 
carried some hundreds of pounds of provi- 
sions, clothing, tools, liquors, tobacco, pet dog 
and cat, literature, furniture, and whatever 
else goes to make up the necessaries and lux- 
uries of a modern bachelor’s establishment. 
In so doing he would still have room and 
lifting capacity for a thousand pounds of 
passengers, or a milch cow and a horse. 


86 


THE BACHELOR CTRL, 


The laboratory was devoted to the manu- 
facture of electrical power. The Siemens 
machine was mounted in a small engine- 
room. The propeller was formed of two 
helicoidal blades of wood, covered with var- 
nished silk, which were prevented from get- 
ting out of shape by the action of steel- wire 
stretchers. 

The speed of the dirigible Americus in 
the absence of a moving air-current was 
equal to three miles per hour for each horse 
power of the dynamo. The Americus easily 
made thirty miles per hour on a perfectly 
still day. Its speed with the wind was 
equal to the velocity per hour of the wind 
plus thirty miles per hour with the propeller 
in full motion. Using a velocity of wind of 
twelve miles per hour as a unit, the Ameri- 
cus made one mile against it in three min- 


THE BACHELOR OIUL. 


87 


utes. It would therefore make headway 
against a current of sixty miles per hour at 
the rate of one mile in fifteen minutes. 

But, as has been stated, for safety and 
economy in sailing, Mr. Pegassus preferred 
not to use his dynamo ; utilizing natural cur- 
rents without any expenditure of his own 
force, thereby saving it in case of accidents. 
His present predicarnent indicated the pos- 
sible exertion of all his electric forces. 

Another question solved by the proprietor 
of the A.mertcus was in reference to the 
storage of compressed hydrogen gas aboard 
the car of the balloon, to make up for any 
exhaust by the valve or any natural com- 
pression in the aerostat. First was an appar- 
atus for 'the manufacture of the gas located 
in sheds of the balloon-yard in New York. 
The gas, when manufactured, ascended into 


88 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


a conduit, whence it made its exit ready for 
use, and was stored in steel cylinders. The 
steel cylinders, were eight feet in length, 
five inches in diameter, and one-half inch 
in thickness, weighing sixty-five pounds each. 
Herein the gas was preserved without any 
loss at a pressure of 185 atmospheres. On 
each trip the Americus carried fifteen of 
these, weighing in all 975 pounds, and suf- 
ficient for a total infiation of 2,100 cubic 
feet. As the entire aerostat when empty 
contained a vacuum of 108,000 cubic feet, or 
a capacity for that many cubic feet of gas, it 
was ordinarily found that the loss of gas by 
compression and the valve during one trip 
seldom exceeded 1,000 cubic feet, and the 
stored gas was more than sufficient to make 
good the loss. 

In the operation of inflation but one cyl- 


THE BACHELOR CTRL, 


89 


inder would ordinarily be opened at a time, 
since the gas, in passing from 135 atmo- 
spheres to one atmosphere, would produce 
through its expansion an intense cold, and 
hence only one cylinder at a time would 
be discharged. Owing to the great length 
of the aerostat, the Americus was easily fed 
by six cylinders at once, each connected at 
regular intervals. In the balloon-yard there 
were kept constantly, for the inflation of the 
aerostat, 600 of these steel cylinders filled 
with compressed hydrogen gas, and sufiicient 
to inflate the entire aerostat and store its car. 

The Americus cost about $171,000, a sum 
much less than the cost of a big steam yacht. 
The amount could be greatly reduced if a 
plant were in existence in this country for 
the regular manufacture of such powerful 
air-ships. 


90 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


This description fairly covers the Ameri- 
cuSj the great dirigible balloon belonging to 
Mr. Junius Pegassus, of New York, and 
operated by him purely as a matter of 
personal pleasure, responding to his nat- 
ural inclination to a life of solitude which 
none of his friends could be persuaded to 
join and consequently molest him ; nor could 
he be met on the way or interrupted or 
competed with. On his proud ship, or in 
his little state-room, he was actually mon- 
arch of all he surveyed. The aerial life had 
an intense charm for him. It accounted, as 
a taste, for the cynicism toward women 
which will be seen to have developed in 
him. 

For once in his life Mr. Pegassus found 
himself in the air under conditions when he 
would rather have seen his ship safely in 



AT THE PRESENT MOMENT, TUE ENTIRE UPPER AND ROWER STRATA OP 
AIR SEEMED TO UAVE MORE OR LESS VIOLENT COMMOTIONS. 



THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


91 


its captivity in his yard. He had often 
been up before when the elements seemed 
too boisterous to descend comfortably. At 
such times he mounted high, kept to his 
state-room, enjoyed the contents of his locker, 
had his meals served in simple style, and 
awaited until the indications pointed to an 
easy descent. At the present moment, the 
entire upper and lower strata of air seemed 
to have more or less violent commotions. 

His only plan seemed to be to sail west- 
ward, perhaps to the Rockies or beyond, 
where the conditions might be more peacea- 
ble. The upper westward current was fa- 
vorable to this plan, and besides, it saved 
him exerting too much electrical force, that 
force which was doubtless destined to be 
drawn upon to its fullest extent to save the 
precious life now his guest. He had but 


92 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


three men aboard besides himself. Being a 
night of dread and possibilities there was no 
chance for any one to sleep or rest. 

One man was detailed to constantly shift 
the ballast (which was done by a mechani- 
cal contrivance of sliding-rods) to preserve 
the equilibrium of the ship; another (the 
captain) was required to watch the propel- 
ler and other gear, to report accidents ; the 
third was the engineer, who looked after the 
valve, dynamo, and stored gas. Himself 
maintained the lookout, kept watch of the 
barograph, the pendulum showing the oscil- 
lations of the ship, or its careenings, tested 
the anemograph for varying velocities of the 
wind and gave orders, when necessary. 

At ten o’clock Miss Douvre called him. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE TWO QUASI-CYNICS MEET. 

Mr. Pegassus entered the state-room, after 
carefully removing his oilskin coat and ar- 
ranging his attire to appear as if he were 
anywhere except on board of a balloon. He 
considered that the air-ship would not re- 
quire watching for some time, as she seemed 
to be sailing steadily at the base of the gale 
and answered her rudder propeller perfectly. 
He had but one duty — to minister to the 
lady and conceal from her the fact of her 
presence on his ship for all time, if pos- 
sible. 

“ In hopes that you were sleeping and re- 
cuperating,” he said, “ I have not disturbed 


94 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


you. If there is anything you desire, pray 
let me get it for you.” 

“ I have slept, but my nerves seem to have 
suffered a shock and it began to grow weari- 
some in here. I thought some one would 
answer my call, and perhaps share my lone- 
liness until I can again sleep.” 

“Wait a moment and I will get you some- 
thing to soothe your nerves.” 

The man went to the locker and returned 
with a bottle of old port wine — a good 
blood-maker, which, with madeira, are prob- 
ably the only blood-making wines — and such 
dainties to eat as he had in store. After 
taking some of the wine she revived suf- 
ficiently to sit erect and nibble the dainties. 

“ I haven’t recovered sufiiciently to care to 
investigate the circumstances which brought 
us together or what is to become of me. 

V 


THE BACHELOR QIRL. 


95 


Still, I would like to ask you some inoffen- 
sive questions. At least, the occupation will 
serve to tire me so I can sleep again.-’ 

“You are very considerate. Miss Douvre, 
to insist that the questions will tire you 
rather than the answers.” The man laughed 
pleasantly and contagiously, as. she joined 
in with him. 

“Might I inquire,” she queried, “if you 
have kidnapped me and shut me in this 
fairy palace for some purpose unknown to 
the ^defendant ? ” Again she laughed pleas- 
antly. 

“ You have nearly surmised the case, 
though I assure you the kidnapping was 
entirely unconscious on my part.” 

“ I can imagine the unconsciousness of it 
in you. You are something of a cynic, at 
least a quasi-cynic. 


96 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


“ And you ? ” 

we each are quasi-cynics, then, 
that is, in the modern acceptation of the 
term, which has come to mean,v how no 
linguist can explain, one averse to the oppo- 
site sex, or averse to a nearer relationship 
than an interchange of politeness and cour- 
tesy. But enough ! I am sure neither of us 
is surly on the subject, or a boor. As a 
matter of fact, I think cynicism is more on 
the surface than in the heart. Might I in- 
quire where I am ? ” 

The man thought a moment. He had al- 
ready planned a lie, but he lacked moral 
courage to execute it. “ You are in a little 
studio or private room of tlie superintendent 
of the shepherd’s barns * in Central Park.” 

* The shepherd’s barns of Central Park comprise a commo- 
dious and beautiful structure of pressed brick in which are 
living quarters. — Eds. 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


97 


“ I have not heard so much as the bleat 
of a sheep, but have felt a swaying motion 
at times as of a ship at sea.” 

The sheep are all asleep, and if there 
was so much as a bleat abroad, the great 
storm would drown it.” Mutual smiles. 

How did I happen to get into the shep- 
herd’s quarters ? ” 

There was no other place to take you.” 

<< Why was I not taken home ? ” 

There was no vehicle in which to take 
you, on account of the worst storm ever ex- 
perienced in the metropolis. Besides, when 
discovered you were insensible, and un- 
known to those who immediately surrounded 
you, and I did not know how dangerously 
you might be hurt. I placed you in here 
awaiting an opportunity to get you safely 

home without danger or annoyance or gossip.” 

7 


98 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


That is to say that there was an accident 
to my horse and you rescued me. Can you 
inform me as to the fate of his lordship ? ” 
“ I did not see him.” 

hope he is safe. Pardon these queries. 
I am not ungrateful, and think the fact will 
develop in good time. I am one in a pre- 
dicament that seems so mysterious that I 
rather enjoy picking at it, as it were.” 

am glad to answer such questions as 
lie within my power, Miss Douvre, but I 
hope you will not exert yourself too much.” 

The man was courtly, considerate, and 
pleasing. She did not desire him to leave 
at present, not until the unfathomable mys- 
tery of the whole thing could be solved, and 
Avhile she was so wide awake. “And all 
the time I have slept here you have re- 
mained to watch over me ? ” she ventured. 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


99 


“ Such has been my pleasure.” 

“There are some elements in this affair 
which I appreciate. Your courtesy resolves 
itself into the principal. It is sometimes 
well to be philosophical, even stoical at 
times. Suppose we admit for the present 
that I am here and must make the best of 
it, even to a spirit of sincere thankfulness 
that nothing worse has befallen me. Would 
you mind entertaining me ? ” 

“It would be a great pleasure if I could 
be entertaining to you.” 

“We have known each other for several 
years, Mr. Pegassus, at least since the very 
first night I made my debut in society. You 
were at our home on that night for a short 
time. You never seem to remain long at 
any entertainment you favor with your pres- 
ence. You are a mystery to our sex and a 


100 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


wonder to your own. Pardon me for so 
plainly stating the pi-oposition. As you are 
to entertain me, would you mind unravelling 
the mystery ? ” 

The man enjoyed the novel position in 
which he found himself placed. He was in- 
tensely pleased, because he knew that she 
was wholly oblivious, at least for the pres- 
ent, and perhaps for all time, to her where- 
abouts and dangers. “ I was not aware. 
Miss Douvre, that my life was of so much 
interest to so many people. I shall be 
happy to disentangle the snarls in it or dem- 
onstrate the proposition, as you put it. 
Where shall we begin ? ” 

“ Your principal 'enjoyment seems to be 
aeronauting. How came you to select such 
a pastime ? 

“ It is difficult to say. I have often spec- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


101 


ulated oil the subject. Also, why some men 
take to the law, others to medicine, some to 
the violin, or invention, or science, etc. If I 
say that it is because water seeks its level, 
you will think me a fatalist. Still, there 
can be no doubt that every individual finds 
liis or her level in this world, and that, after 
all, is destiny. One is what he is, and could 
evidently be nothing else. Inheritance has 
something to do with it, though not in my 
case. There were no aeronauts among my 
ancestry ; the thing had birth in my own 
brain, and, for the w’ant of something more 
amusing, perhaps, I developed the idea. I 
believe that motive underlies all the efforts 
of the human mind. It may be that I had 
a higher motive than mere pleasure. I 
sometimes try to credit myself with the de- 
sire to perfect an unperfected science. I 


102 


THE BACHELOR CTRL, 


liad a large fortune absolutely left me, so 
large that it seenls impossible to decrease it 
by my most persistent efforts. I never took 
kindly to a life in the clubs altogether, the 
mere idleness of a man of leisui’e. I wanted 
to do something which would not take the 
bread out of any other mouth. Had I gone 
into law or medicine or otherwise, and suc- 
ceeded, I would have deprived someone else 
more deserving and needy, perhaps, of all I 
achieved. I try never to do anything which 
someone else can do and earn something by 
it. I wasn’t adapted to enter any business 
that was agreeaVde to me. I never found 
anything in society, outside of the grand 
opera, that particularly interested me. In 
college my mind ran to mathematics and the 
applied sciences rather than languages. I 
found the chemical laboratory more agree- 


THE BACHELOR QIRL, 


103 


able than the campus. While in Paris I 
met Captain Penard, Captain Krebs, Gaston 
Tissandier, and Gabriel Yon, the great mili- 
tary aeronauts of modern times. I saw 
their wonderful air-ships, saw Penard and 
Krebs make their ascension from the wood 
of Meudon, and steer their cigar-shaped bal- 
loon against the wind, returning to the very 
spot from which they started, perhaps the 
only instance of the kind. Tissandier re- 
vealed to me the secret of his electric dy- 
namos, and Yon related to me the secret of 
the proposed enormous balloon of one hun- 
dred and ninety -five feet in length, which he 
was to construct for the Pussian Govern- 
ment. I got intensely interested in the sub- 
ject merely by seeing the ascension of Pen- 
ard and Krebs. I said to myself, ‘ I will go 
home and build a balloon in my own country 


104 


Tm BACHELOR OIRL. 


which shall surpass the efforts of these for- 
eigners, even if they are backed by the 
continental governments.’ 

“ It was American inventive genius com- 
bined Avith English capital that boosted the 
science of aeronautics, anyway. I concluded 
to erect a factory on my own estate . Avhich 
should take the bread from no man’s mouth, 
but open a neAV species of occupation for a 
great many people, besides increasing activ- 
ity in many manufacturing circles. It has 
never been my Intention to construct bal- 
loons for sale, and, therefore, I have not in- 
terfered Avith the custom of any manufac- 
turer. As a matter of fact, there is no 
manufactory in the United States which 
could build balloons on the scale of the 
Americus. I visited the factory of Mr. H. 
Lachambre, at Vaugirard, where eight thou- 



I VISITED THE FACTORY OF MR. H. EACHAMBRE, AT YAUGIRARD. 




THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


105 


sand balloons are annually manufactured. 
After familiarizing myself with the princi- 
ples of construction, I made arrangements 
to have a few skilled American artisans 
coached at Lachambre’s shops. I next 
studied the various methods of manufacture 
of hydrogen gas, finally adopting somewhat 
that of Mr. Gabriel Yon, after an inspection 
of his works near the Champ-de-Mars. My 
dynamo, which furnishes power for my pi-o- 
peller and steering-gear, I modelled some- 
what after Tissandier’s as improved by Cap- 
tain M. Kenard, at the French Military 
School of Aerostatics. 

Although Renard abolished the dynamo 
as adding weight for the aerostat to carry, 
and substituted stored electricity, I have 
held to my own idea of a dynamo, and 
constructed a balloon sufficiently large to 


106 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


carry it in safety. I had a considerable 
timidity when 1 first made ascensions, and 
contented myself with sailing near the earth 
on fair days. Gradually I became accus- 
tomed to the air-ship, and its seeming per- 
fect safety and dirigibility, until now the 
great altitudes often afford to me the only 
solitudes for which I crave.” 

“ I have been intensely interested in your 
account of your taste in this direction, Mr. 
Pegassus, and shall no longer wonder at 
your so-called eccentricity. But why do you 
prefer solitude to the society of mankind ? ” 

“ Again you ask me a question which bor- 
ders upon the psychological. It may be be- 
cause I have regarded myself as a man with- 
out an afiinity in either sex. In college I 
was without a chum. In life I have been 
without a wife. In the club I have sat at 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


107 


the tables with the men, staring at them 
while they drank and jested, without seeing 
or hearing them. You ought not to thrust 
such problems on one impromptu. I am a 
student, but not of myself, and on the spur 
of the moment cannot analyze myself for 
you. If you had not asked me to entertain 
you under circumstances which not only de- 
mand but make it my pleasure, I should 
turn the tables on you and ask if you are 
following the usual method of feminine flat- 
tery of the vanity of man by asking ques- 
tions concerning himself.” 

“No, I am intensely interested. There 
would be no particular object in merely 
flattering a man who, like you, is self-uncon- 
scious; such men cannot appreciate the ef- 
fort, and the fact should be their pride, if 
such can be persuaded to have pride. Tell 


108 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


me more concerning the balloon, its origin, 
its destiny.” 

The first ascent in a free balloon you 
will not find described either in the diction- 
aries or the encyclopaedias. It was made by 
Pilati*e de Kosier and the Marquis of Ar- 
landes, at the Muette Garden, November 21, 
1783. The only account of the ascent is to 
be found in an unpublished letter by Benja- 
min Franklin. The aerostat was a beautiful 
globe very fancifully decorated. The meth- 
od of sailing it is described in Franklin's 
letter. The balloon had an open appendage, 
in the centre of which was fixed a sort of 
lattice-work basket, in which small faggots 
and bundles of straw were .lighted to pro- 
duce gas for the inflation. The air, being 
rarefied in passing through the flames, infla- 
ted and filled the balloon. The persons who 



THE ONXY ACCOUNT OF THE ASCENT IS TO BE POUND IN AN UNPUBLISHED 
LETTER BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 







'i 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


109 


entered the osier gallery, attached outside 
near the appendage, each had in front of 
him an aperture that allowed him to throw 
bundles of straw into the fireplace in order 
to keep up the fire and the balloon full of 
gas. When the flames diminished, the rare- 
fied air cooled and condensed, and the bal- 
loon descended. But all the aeronauts had 
to do to rise again was to feed the flames. 
That, I believe, covers the account of the 
first free ascent in a balloon. Previous to 
that time, men seem to have been content to 
send up sheep. As to the first balloon ever 
invented, it would be impossible to say, as 
the Chinese come in with their regular plea 
of having been a thousand years ahead of 
history.” 

‘‘ But the destiny of the balloon ? ” 

“ All we know of destiny, I fear, is already 


110 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


history. We can say what is must be, per- 
haps, but how can we say what is to be ? 
Aerostation has made some considerable 
progress during the last decade. I will re- 
frain from mentioning my own part in it, in 
hope that some day you may be induced to 
see my Americus and compare it with what 
I may tell you of the work of others. 
France first introduced balloons into war- 
fare, during the revolution, but those were 
captive balloons. France claims still to be 
ahead of the other nations in military aero- 
nautics. Italy, when at war with Abyssinia, 
sent the French aeronautic commander, 
Gabriel Yon, with transportable balloons to 
the seat of activity. He transported the air- 
ships and the gas in storage cylinders for 
their inflation. Each balloon was made of 
silk, and so pliable as to fit into its car of 



> 


0 



i 








i 



# 


I 




ft - * ^ t 

ft 






















I 


ft # ft . v* » . - 


ft ll. 

« 


f » 


w* 

4 




i 

.J 



a At. 


* 1 . 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


Ill 


but thirty -five cubic ' feet capacity. The 
whole was contaiued in a compartment in a 
hind carriage of a vehicle, the front part of 
which was occupied by a windlass. Each 
carriage devoted to a balloon was built low, 
to ^vithstand the jolting, and was drawn by 
two horses. 

At Massowah Mr. Yon found a country 
not adapted to his balloon carriages, and 
was obliged to substitute the camel for the 
horses. Around the drum of the windlass 
winds a cable, the extremity of which was 
affixed to a trapeze that surrounded each 
car. Within the cable, composed of sev- 
eral strands, were .two telephone wires, not 
exactly in the centre, but a little to one 
side, in order that, in case of breakage, the 
point where the accident occurred could be 
ascertained at once, By this means captive 


112 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


balloons were in constant communication 
with those who remained below, who paid 
out or drew in the cable at will, and re- 
ceived telephonic messages concerning the 
movements of the enemy. It took ten men 
to do the manoeuvring. 

“ I will not trouble you with an account 
of balloons not captive in war, unless you 
desire it, but will speak of other countries 
than France. Italy and Russia adopted war 
balloons some time ago. The Czar is fre- 
quently a spectator at the manoeuvres of 
military aeronauts. The first dirigible air- 
ship secured by Russia was ordered from 
Mr. Yon, of France. England has an aero- 
nautic station at Chatham, where balloons 
are constructed under the direction of army 
officers. While the German government 
keeps abreast of military aeronautics and 


TUE BACHELOR GIRL. 


113 


is in the possession* of air-ships, her experi- 
ments are directed mainly to methods of at- 
tack and destruction of both captive and 
free balloons. Its first invention of artilla- 
ry apparatus for throwing projectiles to a 
great height was immediately appropriated, 
as far as possible, by its jealous neighbors. 
Holland, Belgium, Austria, and Denmark 
are not so much experimenters as purchasers 
of all aeronautic apparatus. 

“ The United States is the only nation of 
consequence which has paid no particular 
attention to the subject. I mean our war 
department. But we Americans are notor- 
ious for making no advances in anything 
military. Other governments purchase the 
results of our inventive genius, as for in- 
stance the case of the Hotchkiss and Gat- 
ling guns. We offer no rewards for ad- 
8 


114 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


vanced inventions, will give no appropria- 
tions to purchase them, and of course our in- 
ventors are driven across the water.” 

“ I should like to hear about the free 
balloons in warfare you mentioned.” 

Two Austrian brothers, artillery offi- 
cers, by the name of Uchatius, were the 
first to make practical use of aerial torpedoes. 
They experimented near Vienna, and made 
use of their system at the siege of Venice, in 
1849. In 1882 the German engineer, George 
Eodeck, began to pay especial attention to 
the construction of air - torpedoes. Then 
there is the Gower system, of France, and 
the dynamite balloon of America, invented 
by General Thayer. Rodeck divided his 
system into two classes. The electric tor- 
pedo balloons he provided with clockwork 
detachers. The balloons are started in the 



IMAGINE A COLLECTION OP BALLOONS, A LARGE ONE AND A NUMBER 
OP SMALLER ONES, CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER, SAILING IN A GROUP, 
AND YOU HAVE AN IDEA OP TORPEDO AERONAUTICS IN SOME FUTURE WAR. 





THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


115 


direction of the undercurrent of air from a 
point beyond the reach of the enemy’s fire. 

The electric balloon column consists of 
the principal air-ship, with a capacity of 
about 50,000 cubic feet, and the several tor- 
pedo balloons, of a capacity of some 20,000 
cubic feet each. The operators are carried 
on the passenger-ship. To the network of 
each torpedo balloon there is attached a 
square box, in which the detached device for 
the metallic bomb-shaped torpedo is placed. 
Each torpedo contains from 110 to 165 
pounds of dynamite or gun-cotton. The 
detaching apparatus by which the explosives 
are dropped on the heads of the hapless 
victims, in all the torpedo balloons, is 
connected with an electric battery located in 
the basket of the j^rincipal balloon. Imagine 
a collection of balloons, a large one and a 


116 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


number of smaller ones, connected with each 
other, sailing in a group, and you have an 
idea of torpedo aeronautics in some future 
war. Before starting, all the lesser balloons 
containing the torpedoes are placed in front 
of the operating air-ship, and all mount to- 
gether. 

“ The invention by which these balloons 
are kept together at the same height 
should be credited to Dr. Meossel, of Kiel. 
As soon as the group has arrived at the 
desired place over the enemy, the torpedoes 
are detached, at intervals or all together, 
by means of an electric current from the 
battery on the main balloon. When one of 
these torpedoes alights amidst the enemy, it 
explodes and throws one hundred dynamite 
cartridges in all directions. At the time of 
the detachment, the balloon which carried 



OUT OF EIGHTEEN SHOTS, ELEVEN TOOK EFFECT ON A BALLOON STA- 
TIONED AT A HEIGHT OF 1,312 FEET, BUT NOT ONE HABMED THE CAPTIVE 
AT AN ALTITUDE OF 1,G24 FEET. 




THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


m 


the torpedo is also released. In fact, the 
electric action which detaches the torpedo, 
releases the carrying balloon and opens its 
v^alve, so that it sinks gradually without ex- 
ploding. If it falls within lines it can again 
be used ; if not, the enemy has it for what it 
is worth. 

“ It may interest you to know precisely 
to what danger this group of balloons is 
exposed by the enemy. I have already 
stated that the German experiments were 
mainly in the direction of destroying mili- 
tary balloons by artillery practice and the 
firing of projectiles to a great height. In 
this practice, captive balloons were stationed 
at various altitudes. Out of eighteen shots, 
eleven took effect on a balloon stationed at 
a height of 1,312 feet, but not one harmed 
the captive at an altitude of 1,324 feet. 


118 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


Mr. Eodeck consequently operates liis aeri- 
al torpedoes from an altitude above the en- 
emy of 3,280 feet, to avoid even chance 
shots. 

“ Of course, there are conditions of atmos- 
phere inimical to the operation of torpedo 
balloons, such as prevail to-night, for in- 
stance, so the military aeronaut must have, 
unless his main balloon is as safe and direc- 
tible as my Americus., favorable air-currents. 
Although the wind cannot be expected to 
continue the same during all the time occu- 
pied by the manoeuvres, still experience has 
shown that in normal weather there is a cer- 
tain uniformity in air-currents, especially in 
regions not far above the earth. Aeronauts 
can judge of the weather by many indica- 
tions known to sailors, and besides, there 
have been many instruments invented for 


TBE BACHELOn OlHL. 


119 


ascertaining the direction of upper air-cur- 
rents.” 

“ I am very curious to know upon what 
principle a balloon is steered.” 

“ What we term inherent velocity, given to 
a balloon by means of propelling machinery, 
will account for the fact of its being steered. 
Without such power of motion there could 
be no steering. It has been said that any- 
body can steer a balloon in the direction of 
the wind, and that no one can steer it in a 
calm. The fact is that a balloon, per se, 
knows nothing about the wind and is always 
in a calm. When a balloon comes to be pro- 
pelled by some internal motor, it encounters 
atmospheric resistance, solely due to its own 
motion. Having motion of its own, it can 
then be steered. 

“ While it is thus travelling in the region 


120 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


of the air, it is subject to all the move- 
ments of the atmosphere, and its geograph- 
ical course is a combination of its own mo- 
tion and that of the current in which it 
travels. If a dead calm prevails, then the 
propelled balloon takes its course over the 
earth in exact accordance with its own in- 
herent speed and direction. It is made 
to move against the wind because its pro- 
peller, which is placed at the front end of 
the aerostat, creates a vacuum when in mo- 
tion which sucks the air-ship forward.” 

“ You hesitate; are you at the end of the 
chapter, as it were ? ” 

I am, in general. I think I have covered 
the points of progress in aeronautics. There 
only remains a detailed description of my 
own ship, the Americus, which can best be 
described some day when we can go aboard 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


121 


of her, presumably in the yards where she 
cannot fly away with you. Do you know 
you. surprise me very much ? ” 

“Why?” 

“ I never expected to have the honor of a 
listener in the realms of fashion. Fashion- 
able girls are usually taken up with other 
matters of more interest to them.” 

“You are as bad as the club men, who 
think girls in our circles have no brains. 
Men are not acute observers, else they would 
note that intellectual gentlemen are often 
most sought after by our sex. We like 
brainless men to dance with, and sometimes, 
I fear, to flirt with, but we only respect 
men of intellect. I assure you, that much 
as I should prefer to be in my own drawing- 
room to listen to you, I would rather be here, 
or even in a more preposterous position. 


122 


THE ^ AC BEL on ClUL. 


than not to have heard all that has fallen 
from your lips. I do not intend to flatter 
you, but I like a masterful man, one who 
knows what he is talking about. You are 
evidently thoroughly informed on this sub- 
ject. You have the highest motives for your 
seeming eccentricity, but which, after all, is 
a great science in which it is a matter of 
pride to be interested and thoroughly in- 
formed. However you may be regarded in 
the world of aristocracy, you at least com- 
mand its respect, as you must the admiration 
of the scientific and military world.” 

The young lady reclined wearily. “ I 
think I will sleep again,” she murmured. 

And she slept, and the man went out on 
deck with a new fire raging in his breast. 



MR. PEQASSUS 



CHAPTER V. 


THE REVERY OF MR. JUNIUS PEGASSUS. 

Some men are born lucky,” some acquire 
“luck,” and others have “ luck” thrust upon 
them ; at least, so I should say, if I believed 
either in what is termed “luck” or “ill- 
luck.” It is not customary for men of scien- 
tific bent of mind to consider such local 
terms as “ luck.” Mr. Pegassus was of a de- 
cidedly scientific turn of mind. Though he 
had never been brought face to face with 
the term “ luck ” in all his wealthy life be- 
fore this time, on this momentous night he 
admitted that “luck” had been thrust upon 
him. To him. Miss Douvre answered to the 
term “ luck.” He had not asked for her ; 


124 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


he had not dreamed of her ; he had never 
before desired her ; she had been thrust 
upon him, and he rather liked it. He had 
always been as fond of Miss Douvre, at 
least, as he had been of any other daughter 
of the 400. Having had her in his arms, he 
liked her much better. But having actually 
discovered that she was possessed of an in- 
tellect sufficient to comprehend and admire 
aeronautics, he began to adore her. 

The great air-ship was poising at an alti- 
tude of eleven thousand feet, where she 
had been held for some time by the cap- 
tain, who thought it better to stand still than 
further tempt the cyclone above and the hur- 
ricane beneath. Mr. Pegassus had nothing 
to do but to think, so he lighted a cigar and 
thought. He ought to have slept, but or- 
ders had been given that no man should 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


125 


close his eyes on board, and he proposed to 
obey orders, if even he himself gave them. 

Precisely what Mr. Pegassus thought 
about was precisely what any honorable 
man in his situation would have thought 
about. His mind was accustomed to anal- 
yze, and there was no process by Avhich it 
could be satisfied save through analysis. It 
was natural that, in going from the presence 
of a woman who had not only pleased him, 
but had inspired him, he sliould take down 
from the dusty shelves in his heart all the 
cruel, cynical theories against women he pos- 
sessed, and hold them up for comparison 
and analysis before the mirror of those 
brown eyes closed in sleep in his state-room. 

Love,” like “ luck,” had always seemed 
to him to be a mere local term such as 
“ time,” space,” and “ straight line,” words 


126 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


coined for mere convenience but without 
meaning, reason, or demonstration. The 
things we call space and time having neither 
conceivable beginnings nor conceivable ends, 
can only be used as local terms for the con- 
venience of people, and hence can have no 
existence. We speak of a straight line, but 
no one was ever able to construct one except 
in imagination, and hence it is a local term 
having no existence in fact. He had natur- 
ally reasoned, “ How, then, can there be any 
such thing as love ? ” 

At many fashionable weddings he had 
said to himself, ‘‘ Love is an hallucination, at 
best, a mental illusion. For instance, place 
two young people together on a farm or 
other isolated place where they come in con- 
tact with no other young people, and ere 
long they fall in ‘ love.’ Place the same 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


127 


pair in a crowded community with many 
other young companions, and they will be 
sufficed with a mere acquaintance.” 

“ Again,” he had assumed, given a girl 
with two lovers to whom she is equally at- 
tached, and when forced to choose she will 
take the one most indifferent to her, in hopes 
of her ultimate subjection of him. Without 
exception — and exceptions in mathematics, 
natural science, and in fact everything, 
prove the rule — love is based on policy of 
some kind. Few instances of real soul affin- 
ity have ever been known outside of fiction. 
Fiction is founded on this very proposition ; 
it is the natural outcome of the human long- 
ing for the impossible. The novelist is 
aware that the unknown quantity termed 
^ glamour ’ is as much an hereditary trait of 
all youth as is conceit and freshness. There- 


128 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


fore, said novelist plays on this string for 
the sake of fame, a constituency, bread, and 
a laudable desire to force his opinions on 
the susceptible world.” 

It will be seen that Mr. Pegassus was 
quite as hard on the authors of fiction as 
upon the devotees of love. It is quite re- 
markable how many men in modern times 
fully agree with whatever he might say 
against the time-honored institution called 
love. He continued to confess his past 
thought. Every farm-boy in a community 
is ambitious to marry the girl whose father 
has the largest farm. Every girl in that 
community, including the heiress in question, 
desires to catch the young man whose father 
is the local magnate. The same policy in 
‘ love ’ continues up to the highest grades of 
society. It is caused by the fact that in- 


pw. . ' r 



HE DROPPED THE STUB OP HIS CIGAR OVER THE RAIL. 


I 

I 


i 

\ 




THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


129 


stinct teaches every boy and girl to simulate 
a love for that one personage of the opposite 
sex who dresses best, is supposed to have the 
wealthiest parents, and who spreads the 
largest external a2:)pearances. Take the typ- 
ical case of the farm heiress. The man 
who fires her imagination most by the best 
address, the one best fitted to survive, as it 
were, secures her in time, and the remaining 
but disappointed youth of the community, 
out of pique, mate as best they can.” 

Mr. Pegassus glanced uneasily at the 
state-room as his thought reverted to his 
time-honored beliefs, as if he feared the lady 
were looking at his meditations. He 
dropped the stub of his cigar over the rail — 
perhaps to strike and kill by its momentum 
some liapless citizen a mile below — and light- 
ed another. 


9 


130 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


This country should make and enforce 
some laws in reference to aeronauts throw- 
ing refuse overboard. 

Surely,” he thought, I ought to know 
how it is in the metropolis. Marriages there 
are based upon the supposed benefits to be 
derived by alliance, such as wealth, political 
or social prestige, title, combination of for- 
tunes, etc. As a mere matter of form, the 
man is allowed to tell the girl he loves her 
' and indulge in a few sentimental premarital 
hours, but not until after the parents or 
guardians have consulted and fixed the set- 
tlements. Any attempt on the part of the 
youth to court independently or marry clan- 
destinely is met by a storm of opposition 
by the people on both sides, or the relatives 
on the side least benefited, because these peo- 
ple know by actual experience that love has 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL. 


131 


no place in married life, is a chimera, a sen- 
timental glamour, a mistaken conception, a 
mental illusion not capable of much en- 
durance after the ceremony.” 

Again Mr. Pegassus glanced uneasily 
toward the state-room, and allowed that per- 
haps experiment would utterly demolish 
this view. But he had courage and pro- 
ceeded to resurrect his idols. “ Some tem- 
peraments are such that, recognizing the 
flight of love from the window, the united 
pair mutually agree to live out the glamour, 
be good citizens for the sake of their off- 
spring, and get as much happiness — what- 
ever that indefinable, alleged thing is — as 
possible. Such couples are the real bul- 
warks of the commonwealth. That must 
be admitted. But as a matter of statistics, 
some forty per cent, of American marriages 


132 


THE BAGHELOB QIRL, 


go to the divorce court, forty more are made 
up of bitter inter-domestic strife, and the re- 
maining twenty per cent, of married people 
live amicably together by tacit consent, be- 
lieving they have done as well as possible 
for mere human beings to do. In France, 
divorce is more rare because the father usu- 
ally recognizes only his first - born child. 
In England, particularly among the nobil- 
ity, scandal, intrigue, and disreputed house- 
holds are the rule. Among the southern 
European nations the ferocity of passion, the 
dagger, the stiletto, and family clans make at- 
tempted divorce, desertion, or unfaithfulness 
dangerous. The further north one travels, 
the less family separation is observable, but 
also the more ignorance and neglect of the 
bath-tub, so that married life is accepted com- 
placently as something which must be.” 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


133 


Mr. Pegassus had kept a shamefaced 
glance toward the state-room for some time, 
as if expecting the lady to come forth in 
wrath and demand to be rid of his presence. 
He was a brave man, and he continued to 
make his confessions, even if he had to pay 
the penalty then and there. He conceived 
that he must take all these thoughts out of 
his mind for inspection and cast them over- 
board. “ The male sex is fairly well versed 
in the uses of the term ‘ love.’ The discreet 
man, he who studies the sex well, will play 
it diplomatically and win where he chooses. 
The female studies the same word for dif- 
ferent effects. To her, love means the sur- 
render on her part of not very much, and 
the conquest of all she values most, whether 
it be society and the ability to maintain a 
place, or mere wealth as something to boast 


134 . 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


over and display, or merely a husband to 
support her. The latter is the plea of the 
female of the masses — someone to support 
her. So, love is a mere foot-ball, a term 
which means differently to every living be- 
ing. It has its humorous sides like every- 
thing else. Probably the maddest woman 
in the world is she who, having rejected a 
man in order to play with him as a cat 
would a feather, awaits in vain to see him 
make a scene, or turn pale, or lose his appe- 
tite, or go away in despair or rage, or com- 
mit suicide, or mention the subject, or pro- 
pose a second time. The rejected man who 
knows the female character, particularly if 
he has been an apparently favored suitor, 
can get all the vengeance he desires by fail- 
ing to mention the subject of matrimony a 
second time to the lady.” 


THE BAGHELOn OIRL. 


135 


Mr. Pegassus was certain lie knew all 
about the feminine character. This was 
what he professed to know : “ Of the two 
sexes, woman is the more peculiar creature. 
If she insults a man she expects him to apol- 
ogize. Her ten thousand caprices — mere ani- 
mal traits, when dissected — she expects him 
to sympathize with and endure with pa- 
tience and long suffering. She hesitates at 
nothing, not even her personal sacrifice, to 
accomplish an end, usually not worth hav- 
ing. Her whole life and its every action are 
governed by motives and her means are to an 
end. Since the very dawn of history, the 
wife has utilized a good dinner, some little 
gift, or an extra show of affability previous 
to asking for a new dress or bonnet. In 
fashionable circles, the wife procures what- 
ever she desires, and peace in the family, by 


136 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


professing not to know her husband’s life 
outside the home. Strange to say, the in- 
tellectual woman, particularly the college 
graduate, is not a success in the matrimonial 
market. She seems to unsex herself the 
moment she acquires a sheepskin. This is 
the case because education has taught her 
how low down in the scale are her mere in- 
herited animal traits of character. 

“ Many of these traits were inherited from 
the lower orders, and cultivated to some- 
thing like perfection by natural selection 
through the entire age of man. Her method 
of adorning herself so as to attract attention 
is practised by all the lower species. She 
hasn’t a vanity or whim, which isn’t dupli- 
cated in the hennery, forest, and pasture. 
The college woman comes to know this so 
thoroughly that she often lays aside, in dis- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


137 


gust, tlie deceits of her sex ; and men, unac- 
customed to so high a variety of woman, in 
general pass her by and go lower down in the 
scale of intellect, passions, and womanisms. 
The age may change. Men may yet come to 
know that the safety of the family and the 
republic lies in marriage with these safe, 
college-educated, well-equipoised women.” 

Mr. Pegassus confessed that he had been 
no quasi cynic, as Miss Douvre had said, but 
one in deed and fact. His experiences of 
the night cried out against such harsh opin- 
ions, however true they might seem to a cold 
scientific mind which observed phases of 
life without a scintilla of passion, but from 
the one standpoint of passing data. Of a sud- 
den, he arrived at the conclusion that it was 
not only indiscreet, usually, to tell the truth, 
but to see it as well. He was the very type 


138 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


of man to take advanced views on the sex 
question, but unlike leisure club men, he 
never undertook to accuse women of vices. 
For college-bred women he had somehow 
come to entertain the highest respect, except 
in cases where they became rampant wom- 
an s rights advocates, which, he insisted, was 
the most distressing of all doctrines. He 
had no objections to her taking up law, or 
medicine, where he conceded she was sorely 
needed to minister properly to her own sex. 
Woman’s rights, he was sure, was a retro- 
grade movement. He argued thus : 

“Woman’s rights, supposed to be progres- 
sive, is really a return to barbarianism, since 
in all barbaric tribes woman has her ‘ rights ' 
and does all the hard work, slaves for the 
idle brave. One would suppose that in nat- 
ure degeneration is impossible, because being 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL, 


139 


a world governed on the principles of evolu- 
tion, only progress is possible. Still, the 
bear degenerated from the dog. So, the 
success of woman’s rights would mean the 
ultimate relief for man from all toil, while 
the female degenerated to a mere pack-horse.” 

The stub of the second cigar also fell over 
the rail, and perhaps killed some lone quad- 
ruped standing in a fence corner with back 
to the storm. The revery was ended and 
the aeronaut considered that, in taking all 
these thoughts from his mind almost in the 
presence of a representative of the sex, and 
throwing them away, he had atoned and be- 
come purged, since he promised not to re- 
sume them again on any account. On the 
whole, he rather hoped that they would fall 
on the earth, where some woman of good 
sense might pick them up, separate the true 


14:0 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


from the false, admit that men are ever en- 
gaged in thinking such things for which the 
sex is partially to blame, and somehow re- 
store the good old days of respect and chiv- 
alry between the sexes. 

Mr. Pegassus had a deeply intellectual 
face. He was a man of stout, firm build, 
not past thirty-four years in age. He was 
somewhat above the medium height, and 
while not in the least red-haired, he was pos- 
sessed of a j)air of reddish sideburns that 
well became his face. He had those deep, 
gray -blue eyes and large chiselled nose, to- 
gether with the straight, firm mouth which is 
somewhat typical of the New England schol- 
ar. That he was a scholar, every line of his 
features showed. He also had the apparent 
solidity of a man whom none of us wish to 
have strike out in oui* direction. He had 


THE BACHELOR CTRL. 


141 


the scholar's way of working his under-lip 
when he spoke, and showing the under-row 
of teeth by which means he enunciated with 
perfect clearness. Nearly all men of his 
type are handsome. While admired by 
women, they are also feared. 

The average woman does not take kindly 
to a handsome man. Her own looks are her 
special vanity, and she fears to lose some 
attention if placed alongside such a man. 
This should explain the multiplicity of mar- 
riages between very beautiful women and 
purely ugly men. The contrast is all to the 
enhancement of the woman’s beauty and 
against the beast. Certainly, Mr. Pegas- 
sus was the last of mankind to whom a 
woman of fashion would be expected to 
take kindly matrimonially. In this respect, 
however, the gentleman began hoping he 


142 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


had been mistaken. In fact he felt en- 
couraged. He was both rich and, he be- 
lieved, thoroughly respectable. 

Suddenly an idea possessed him. He 
sprang to his feet. Suppose he should get 
Miss Douvre into her home before daylight. 
Would not that stop all scandal and save 
her name from being hawked in the pa- 
pers ? Neither of them knew what was 
taking place in New York City, but the 
chances were that his lordship, if he had 
a spark of manhood, would not tell the 
lady’s name until compelled to do so by 
her absence. Certainly, Mr. Douvre was 
not a man to reveal an escapade of his own 
daughter. If she could be got into the 
house before dawn, no one could ever say 
she had been cai’ried away captive by a 
balloon, not even she herself. 



MY LORD HECTOR 




UAiff.* 



CHAPTEH VI. 


MY LORD HECTOR. 

The Earl of Bathgate, or Lord Jasper 
Hector, paced the street in front of the 
Douvre mansion nearly all the night. There 
was no ascertaining the whereabouts of Miss 
Douvre. The servants were discreet and 
not subject to bribes, particularly where 
their mistress was concerned. His lord- 
ship considered his position from its several 
standpoints, and saw but one fate staring him 
in the face. He had practically failed to 
capture the heiress, and it was certain that 
his financial backer would no longer advance 
funds. The police were certain to arrest 
him in the morning, whether Miss Douvre 


144 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


returned or not. Even if slie were safe, lie 
could not escape. It would sacrifice what- 
ever honor remained to him to reveal the 
lady’s name in any case. There was but one 
fact before the police — a lady who had been 
riding with his lordship had suddenly dis- 
appeared, leaving no trace of herself except 
a horse frightfully mangled. 

Should Miss Douvre appear in the flesh 
on the following morning, she could not be 
mentioned as the person concerned without 
bringing her name into newspaper notoriety 
all over the world, and becoming the com- 
mon subject of gossip of all classes. If she 
were dead, she must have been carried away 
by a meteor, of which fact there could be no 
proof or extenuating circumstances toward 
him. Her father could never be convinced 
of his innocence. 


THE BACHELOR CTRL, 


145 


Dead or alive, he was the real victim of 
the disaster; he was the real object whose 
name would suffer ; to the police the woman 
would always be dead. There was but one 
thing to do. It should never be said of 
him that he had been confined in a cell for 
murder. It should never be said of him 
that he had been backed by a broker who 
had deserted him. There was one way out 
of the whole affair, by which neither he nor 
an inoffensive lady should be compromised. 
He went over the whole matter to his satis- 
faction. 

At three o’clock in the morning he re- 
turned to his apartment. He left every- 
thing in the room precisely as if he were ex- 
pecting to go on as usual. He then arranged 
himself for retiring. Taking a small vial, 

he swallowed its contents. Then he opened 
10 


146 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


the heavy folding bed, got inside the blan- 
kets securely, and lay as if in sleep. As the 
effects of the poison began to exhaust his 
last strength, he managed to close the bed. 

The next day a servant entered the rooms 
of my Lord Hector. He saw his lordship’s 
clothes in their place, and naturally supposed 
that the noble was still asleep. He turned 
his face toward the bed, and was surprised 
to find it standing upright against the wall as 
if it had not been opened. Surely his lord- 
ship must be asleep somewhere in the room, 
as his clothes were in place. Why was not 
the bed let down as it should be, if his lord- 
ship were asleep ? The servant, with a 
queer sensation which the psychologist may 
explain, slowly advanced to the bed, cau- 
tiously he touched the heavy spring and 
gently pulled it down. There, fast in sleep, 



THERE FAST IN SLEEP, BUT IN THE SLEEP OF DEATH, LAY HIS LORDSHIP, 


• / ./■/' 








THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


147 


but in the sleep of death, lay his lordship, 
but on his face was a bitter, ironical smile. 

“ Strangled ! ” gasped the faithful servant, 
falling on his knees and violently weeping. 


CHAPTER VII. 


ME. PEGASSUS HAS A SURPRISE. 

Miss Douvre was a college-bred woman. 
None but that type, perhaps, could be ex- 
pected to take an Earl by the scruff of 
his neck, as it were, while she told him the 
exact truth about himself and her inten- 
tions. Only her type of mind could rise 
above the intricate network of feminine van- 
ities and disclose the emptiness of a mere 
title to a broken-down antiquary, and dis- 
miss the temptation. 

There is nothing singular in a daughter of 
the 1,400 being a college graduate. In this 
select circle are quite as many curiosities as 
in any other. These daughters in some re- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


149 


spects are like other girls. They sometimes 
go on the stage, or in amateur theatricals or 
circus, show a consummate ability to do 
pretty much what other mortals do. In 
fact, the daughter of the 1,400 differs from 
the daughter of the 300,000 * very largely 
in externals, such as surroundings, dress, 
opportunities, etc. 

The very fact that Mr. John Douvre 
made his fortune in extensive operations in 
coal, would show a master-mind in the fam- 
ily, which would determine to give his child 
a really valuable education, that would en- 
able her to care for his fortune when he re- 
tired from this world. She was the very 
type of girl to make an actual conquest of ^ 
education, to master it, and to stand abreast 

* The “300,000” comprise that element of New York so- 
ciety next in importance to the 1,400 ; the number includes 
the select of Brooklyn. — Eds. 


160 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


witli her class, even with the best men in 
it. 

The most striking trait of the very rich is 
tenacity, both in holding what they have, 
and in acquiring what they haven’t. A poor- 
er girl with a few brothers to baby her, and 
an imbecile mother, would have ridden 
through. college, if at all, on ponies, making 
eyes at the good-looking professors all the 
time. The college-bred girl is quite as much 
a factor of the coming civilization, and even 
the present civilization, as the gii'l of the 
plutocracy, the bachelor girl. When w’e 
come to combine these types, how much 
more advanced in certain directions is the 
result than the most accurate prognosticator 
of social ethics could conceive. 

After a second refreshing sleep. Miss Dou- 
vre awoke to feel that she suffered no fur- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


151 


ther from any shock to her nerves. Instant- 
ly her fully recovered faculties set to work 
to unravel all the mystery with which she 
was invested. Her first duty Avas to investi- 
gate her room, divine to what it could be- 
long, how she really came there, and where 
in this wide world she might be. On these 
points she had answers from Mr. Pegassus, 
but she wished to answer for herself. Some 
girls would have eyed the things in “ a 
man’s room,'’ envied its possessor, and de- 
termined to capture him by any one or more 
of various devices known to the sex, such as 
sentimentalisms, fears, doubts, thanks, and 
cranks. 

First, Miss Douvre began with Mr. Peg- 
assus. She was certain that of late he had 
been spending all his time in ballooning. 
Second, she had read full descriptions of his 


152 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


air-ship, though she had thus far thought it 
best not to so inform him, and was convin- 
ced after examination that she occupied his 
state-room, which could only be located in 
the Americ'us- Third, she had recovered her 
memory sufficiently to know that her horse 
had met with a tragic, instantaneous death, 
at the time of which she had been seized and 
had lost consciousness. What could have 
accomplished her seizure? It must have 
been the guy -rope, and if so, the heavy iron 
drag 'must be hidden in 'the body of her 
favorite horse. Fourth, she had not been 
killed, and hence must have been drawn up 
into the balloon and rescued from a fright- 
ful death. Fifth, she was not indebted to 
Mr. Pegassus for the rescue ; on the contrary, 
he had narrowly escaped an unconscious 
murder. Lastly, it was an accident on the 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


153 


part of each that led to the predicament. 
Hence she owed him no thanks, except foV 
courtesies aboard his ship; while he owed 
her apologies, and should forever bless his 
stars that there had been nothing more seri- 
ous. 

Her next idea alarmed her; the balloon 
must now be in air. At the thought she 
sprang from the couch and gazed out. A 
faint streak of light in the East indicated 
the approach of dawn. Above and below 
her were dense, black clouds hurrying in op- 
posite directions. No earth being visible, 
she could not be dizzy. She noted that the 
great, majestic ship was descending slightly, 
and she worked on the problem of the mean- 
ing of the descent and the course Mr. Pegas- 
sus would likely pursue. Gradually she 
divined what a gentleman would do consid- 


154 


THE BACHELOR QIRL. 


ering all the circumstances, and Mr. Pegas- 
sus was a gentleman. He would land her on 
her own steps if possible, and never reveal 
the truth, nor let her know what had really 
happened. It is always thus with true gen- 
tlemen and true friends. What they do for 
others they keep to themselves, if done out of 
friendship ; silence is the test of friendship, 
as it is of the greatness of all acts which 
arebest kept secret for the good of all con- 
cerned. 

Now that she knew the worst, at least up 
to this moment, knew the story as if he had 
told her all, she looked in his little mirror to 
see if she were frightened, and if any hairs 
had turned white. There were no such 
signs visible ; certainly she felt no fear. 
Why was it ? Would she not be in fear if 
any other than Mr. Pegassus were navigat- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


155 


ing the balloon ? Would she allow this 
man to carry out his original design as she 
conceived it must be, or request him to go on 
with the sail and let her enjoy the novelty ? 

His design would relieve her friends from 
any possible grief, and absolutely save her 
from publicity. Even if Lord Hector gave 
her name to the public and she could affirm 
she walked home, and prove it by her pres- 
ence there in the morning, what could the 
best sensationally conducted newspaper say ? 
She did not believe his lordship, or any other 
man who had one spark of manhood about 
him, would reveal her name as the owner of 
the dead horse except in case of her total 
disappearance. On the other hand, if she 
chanced a little ride, what immense mys- 
tery ! what columns and pages of talk ! 
what a world-renowned heroine she would 


156 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


become ! It was not in her nature to desire 
to become the subject of such heroeism. 
Still, there was one way to accomplish both 
ends, that is, enjoy a ride and still reach 
home before the light of day, by which no 
one need be any the wiser. 

At first she had been a little indignant at 
the little deceits which had been practised 
by Mr. Pegassus, but the more she thought 
on the subject, the more charmed she became 
with the man and his admirable manage- 
ment of the affair to her benefit. He was 
a real general, and thereafter he should com- 
mand her forces socially if she could pre- 
vail upon him. She looked through the 
breaking darkness, but could see little of the 
car and its contents. Instinct taught her 
that every man was there somewhere, and 
at his place, wide awake. So far she had 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


15T 


been peering througli the window, but now 
she opened the door, very timidly, and as 
timidly stepped out and against the rail of 
the car. From far below she could hear 
the tremendous roaring of the hurricane and 
in imagination see trees bending and debris 
flying. It was a revelation to her of a kind 
which she did not care to comprehend all at 
once. She stepped back, opened the door, 
and leaned against the post, then called Mr. 
Pegassus gently by name. 

That sweet little sound conveying his 
name to him from such lips caused the man 
to spring to the state-room door. Had she 
been listening to his meditations which he 
had dared not so much as pronounce ? If so, 
had she forgiven them after seeing him cast 
them overboard ? He had not so much as 
a suspicion that she had fathomed the in- 


158 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


vesting mystery while he had been meditat- 
ing. Still, the balloon was manoeuvring, 
getting prepared to force a descent through 
the hurricane at some point which would en- 
able him to land in the right place. He had 
to measure forces both of his own and nat- 
ure’s, and so begin the descent at such a 
distance from the city as would take into 
consideration the drift to which both a bal- 
loon and a vessel at sea are subject, on ac- 
count of the currents. Such being the case, 
he must resort to some subterfuge to keep 
her in the state-room and asleep for at least 
an hour or two longer. 

Did you call ? ” he asked, with freezing 
politeness. 

I certainly did, Mr. Pegassus. This be- 
fore-dawn air is fine, and I thought perhaps 
you might be induced to enjoy it with me.” 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


159 


She smiled so sweetly that he almost re- 
lented, and again wondered if, though rich, 
she regarded him as respectable. 

“It is delicious air, as you say. Miss 
Douvre, as Central Park air usually is, but 
I am on the point of retiring for a little sleep, 
as I feel very much fatigued. If you will 
permit me, I should say you had best follow 
my example. It will still be time enough 
two, or even three, hours hence, to arise and 
enjoy the morning air. Indeed, I think the 
air, from three to five o’clock, is malarious. 
You need rest, and, pardon me, so do I.” 

The man hated himself from that moment. 
It seemed like forcing her to sleep against 
her will, and perhaps necessities. 

Miss Douvre was exceedingly amused. 
The farce was too preposterous for further 
straining at dramatic power. How affected 


160 


TEE BACHELOB GIRL. 


his icy politeness! How well he acted his 
part ! How noble in him to make himself 
disagreeable even in order to best serve her 
interests I “ Mr. Pegassus,” she answered, 
gently, “ before you retire, permit me to 
relieve your mind on one point. I am not 
in the least injured.” 

Thank Heaven ! ” 

“ And not being injured, am not in the 
need of further sleep. Do you know, I think 
you had best take the state-room and sleep 
while I assume your watch on the car. I 
should like to witness the sunrise, beginning 
with the dawn previous to the rise. I also 
feel it my duty to share some of the watch 
with you.” 

The man was utterly astounded. He 
looked at her and gasped. Had she really 
ascertained her environment and was un- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


161 


daunted ? “ But really, my dear Miss 

Douvre, you must need more sleep. You 
talk as if you were on a passenger train in- 
stead of in tke shepherd’s quarters in Central 
Park, where you fell from your horse.” 

“ Oh, well, it doesn’t so much matter. 
Please come here and look at the barograph.* 
If you had not a disabled barometer, I 
should compute the altitude of these shep- 
herd’s quarters at over three miles.” 

“ Oh ! of course, it is a crazy affair. But 
where did you learn to compute altitude on a 
barometer ? ” 

“ At the Harvard Annex, to be sure ! ” 
Were you graduated there ? ” 

“ Certainly, and took the honors in 1887. 
Do you know, the vernier of this anemo- 

* The barograph is a machine connected electrically with the 
barometer, which keeps the record of the barometer. — E ds. 

11 


162 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


graph is rapidly approaching the hurricane 
point ? Perhaps you should call your 
shepherds on deck, dogs and all, else the 
sheep may get spilled.” 

The man actually gasped in alarm. She 
must have discovered her predicament. He 
hadn’t a moment’s time. He ordered all 
hands to their places. The balloon was 
descending into the storm area to test it and 
determine in what manner New York could 
best and most safely be reached. In an 
instant he was at her side. Almost rudely 
he pushed the state-room door wide open and 
grasped at her arm to thrust her inside. 

Quickly she moved beyond the door and 
laughed at him. 

No,” she said, “ I will remain here. 
This is to be a royal battle between the 
elements of your dynamo and the elements 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


163 


of Nature. It may be tbe only chance of 
my life to witness such a scene.” 

The man glanced at her with admiration 
and pride. She really intended to enjoy his 
great air*ship and see it battle with the ele- 
ments on scientific principles. At that in- 
stant the door closed with a bang, and the 
enormous aerostat careened, then closed with 
the crest of the hurricane. As it sank 
deeper into the storm, the anemograph* 
registered seventy-five miles per hour. In 
order to stand comparatively still it was 
necessary for the dynamo to exert a force 
equal to at least thirty elements. Such was 
the theory, but as a matter of fact the engi- 
neer made use of fifty, and part of the time 
the available force equal to seventy-two 

* The anemometer measures the velocity of the wind ; the 
anemograph is a machine connected electrically with it, which 
keeps the record of it. — E ds. 


164 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


elements, in working the propeller against 
this furious storm. Theory should have 
driven this balloon against a wind blowing 
seventy-five miles per hour at the rate of 
one mile in eighteen minutes. Perhaps the 
propeller did not work at its best on this 
particular occasion, or perhaps the great 
moisture in the atmosphere, the floods of 
water pouring from the clouds as the air- 
ship neared the earth, were too much for 
any power invented by man. Be this as it 
may, the tests were not satisfactory to Mr. 
Pegassus, and he almost feared to make the 
descent. It was some minutes before the 
propeller, revolving at a rate of some five 
hundred and forty revolutions per minute 
halted the momentum of the balloon. Un- 
der that powerful pressure -she obeyed her 
helm, and the wind howled past. 


THE BACHELOR QIRL, 


165 


This is glorious ! ” exclaimed the girl, as 
she noted the mastery, the slackening of 
speed of the air-ship from seventy -five miles 
per hour to about ten. “ No wonder the 
drag killed my poor bay horse. The won- 
der ceases there, and begins on my happy 
escape. Do you often go out on these girl- 
catching expeditions, Mr. Pegassus % ” 

The poor man paled at the thought. 

“ How can you ! ” he exclaimed. 

“My friend, the best policy is to laugh 
while we may. The poor Earl, thrown on 
the grass and having his broker-advanced 
toilet disarranged, had no cause for merri- 
ment. We have everything amusing on our 
side. This barograph is all right. We are 
now only a mile high, and your anemometer 
whirls faster and faster. Surely the anemo- 
graph registers seventy-seven miles per hour. 


166 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


If I am not mistaken, the hurricane increases 
as we approach the earth. Do you think 
you can cope with it ? ” 

Mr. Pegassus was aghast with amazement. 
She read his scientific apparatus at a glance, 
talked familiarly of vernier scales, anemo- 
graphs and anemometers, barographs and 
barometers. What next surprise was in 
store for him ? He, like the storm, was 
positively mastered. He wondered if she 
knew her whereabouts during that wonder- 
ful conversation, when she asked him all 
about the history of the balloon, and if she 
had quietly laughed at him as she had done 
about the shepherd’s quarters in Central 
Park. He wondered, too, if she could be 
aware of the peril of the final plunge to 
earth and the landing. 

‘^Miss Douvre,” said the man, seriously. 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


167 


“ dissimulation in your presence is impossi- 
ble. I was in hopes to conceal all this from 
you. I might have succeeded with a woman 
unknown to the halls of learning. I am 
glad that it was you and not some other 
human being of either sex, who was des- 
tined to be captured by my guy-rope. I am 
glad to be relieved of the possibility of ever 
being obliged to reveal the circumstances of 
this enforced ride to you, since you have 
learned all on your own account. I am also, 
proud that you are pleased to enjoy your 
thrilling experience. At the same time let 
me urge you that complete safety lies only 
in that state-room. I desire to say some- 
thing to impress you with that state-room in 
which you have found shelter. You may 
also find escape from death in there. The 
state-room is a separate affair from the bal- 


168 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


loon. It is SO constructed as to be complete 
in itself. Should the balloon ever be dashed 
against the rocks or the earth, or otherwise, 
the state-room would fall from its place. It 
is completely bound in safety air-cushions. 
Do you observe the flagstaff on its top? 
That is really an immense parachute which 
is hoisted as an awning when the sun is too 
severe and we are running with the wind or 
in a calm. When closed, it usually carries 
the flag. Observe the knob in the state- 
room wall. When that knob is pulled, the 
parachute expands. If the aerostat should 
explode high in the air and I happened to be 
in the state-room, I should pull the knob, the 
parachute would open, and this state-room, 
detached from the car, would float calmly to 
the ground ; but even if it struck hard, I 
estimate that the air-cushions would break 


TEE BACHELOR GIRL, 


169 


the fall sufficiently to allow me to escape 
with life and limb. Men have descended 
safely several thousand feet clinging to a 
parachute ; why not my little state-room 
constructed of light, airy materials, and its 
occupants ? The parachute has a diameter 
of eighteen feet, and that ought to carry one, 
state-room and all, safely to earth. Let me 
beg of yOu to keep within it. I begin to 
fear that we are in daijger, the storm so in- 
creases as we near the earth. I reckon that 
the earth current is flowing from eighty-flve 
to ninety miles per hour. My dynamo was 
never made to compete with such a storm in 
conjunction with floods of rain. It may 
stand it, but it is doubtful. I take it that 
on general principles, you would rather de- 
scend to death than to be found missing in 
New York in the morning. If I am mis- 


170 


THE BACHELOR QIRL. 


taken, one word, and we will fly far above 
this hurricane, and proceed to the Rocky 
Mountains for safety in descent.” 

The girl turned and for the first time 
looked and felt toward him the fulness of 
her gratitude. He would, then, sacrifice his 
life and even hers and also his magnificent 
air-ship that she might escape scandal. 
There are moments when an eternity flashes 
into one’s life. She saw past, present, and 
future in that one instant, as regarded their 
two lives. In the glance she gave him he 
read and felt as much. She stepped close 
to him. “ Mr. Pegassus,” she said, “ I desire 
to remain outside as long as it is absolutely 
safe. The instant of danger to this air-ship, 
I will enter that compartment on one condi- 
tion, and no other.” 

And that % ” he asked feebly. 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


171 


That you enter with me.” 

“ Miss Douvre ! ” there was a tear visible 
in his eye. Could nothing be concealed 
from her? 

“ Promise ! ” she entreated. 

Do you mean life or death together ? ” 
he asked, taking her hand. 

‘‘ Life or death together.” 

“ And forever ? ” 

Forever.” 




CHAPTEK VIIL 


SUNRISE IN NEW YORK. 

Not another word was spoken for some 
time. He merely bent and passionately 
kissed her hand. These two had known 
each other for several years and perhaps 
longer. They had met night after night in 
the mlon of the home or opera without so 
much as experiencing the first approach to 
sentiment. Although they had conversed 
somewhat nightly, danced occasionally, etc., 
neither had come actually to know the 
other. 

How often do we see this principle il- 
lustrated in life ! Two people travel along 
the social highway for years, their hands al- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


173 


most touching and their salutes made daily 
to each other, scarcely feeling each other’s 
presence. Suddenly, some new element en- 
ters their lives, and of each at the same time. 
They turn and, in each other’s face, read 
the truth. Dynamite does not explode until 
touched. A train does not start until the 
engineer grasps the throttle. Some new ele- 
ment must come in to unite or ignite the 
others. 

It was true that she and her bevy of ad- 
mirers had heretofore not seriously attracted 
his attention; he was given to other spe- 
cies of investigation than that of the femi- 
nine nature. His solitariness in society 
would have escaped her notice entirely in 
times past but for his mysterious eccentric- ’ 
ity, his passion for ballooning. He had never 
attempted to penetrate the crowd that sur- 


174 


THE BACHELOR OIRL. 


rounded her to reach her intellect. If 
women had intellects above the ordinary he 
was, strangely enough, acquiring the fact as 
the probable last act of his life.. In fact, it 
had been a matter of indifference to him in 
times past whether the sex possessed a pos- 
sible intellect or not. He himself was en- 
dowed with a massive intellect which held 
him remote from all except the most distin- 
guished of his own sex. 

If Mr. Pegassus had ever thought on the 
subject of matrimony at all, it was with a 
shudder at the possibility of enduring a life 
with a woman unpossessed of a masterful 
mind. He had found it intolerable attempt- 
ing to endure the feminine section of his own 
family, and whom, at times of unreasoning 
thought, he regarded as so many animals, 
not of the field, but actually of his own 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 175 

household. He held in contempt their total 
lack of comprehension of his life and its im- 
port. They totally failed to render to him 
that respect which was his due. He never 
failed in one iota to place in their way every 
courtesy, every mark of politeness and dis- 
tinguished consideration. In return, they 
attempted unwarranted and impertinent 
familiarity with him. There is no relation- 
ship, either matrimonial, by blood ties, el- 
even in friendship, that warrants undue 
familiarity. 

Men who know their position in the world, 
and know what respect to them means, not 
only to themselves, but their families, cannot 
tolerate, without ill-concealed contempt, un- 
warranted familiarity, whether from wives, 
sisters, brothers, lovers, or friends. Such 
of these as possess good breeding will never 


176 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


cross tbe line of gentility, nobility, unselfisli- 
ness, and courtesy. 

Love is a thousandfold enhanced by con- 
stant marks of respect, unobtrusiv^e respect. 
How many a high-bred man has gone from 
the door of the woman he loved, never to 
return, because of her assumption of a famil- 
iarity that destroyed the very germ of love. 

The badly-trained girl oversteps her boun- 
daries in these days of high-bred,., proud 
men. Her imprudence betrays her associa- 
tion with men who live as the beasts, mostly 
besotted with drink, and given to freedom 
with women. Such men, no .matter how 
generous, are not gentlemen. When a girl 
turns from the presence of these beasts to 
that of gentlemen, and attempts the same 
liberty of speech, she becomes an intolerable 
nuisance. Her impertinence may be toler- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


m 


ated in silence, but not for long, and she 
some day wonders, not without pain, why 
men whom she knows to be real gentlemen, 
desert her for less pretentious women. 

The women of the Pegassus family were 
evidently of the impertinent type, at least 
from the brother's standpoint. He had 
learned to affect tolerance of them and the 
sex rather than to appear to be a misan- 
thrope, an eccentric, a boor, and so he had 
preserved passable relations with his family, 
the human family, and particularly the la-, 
dies, by artificially tendering courtesy to all 
and being seen on festive occasions. In the 
present moment left him in which to think, 
it occurred to him as something extraor- 
dinary that the very girl of all others, the 
least suspected of a master mind, the daugh- 
ter of a wealth -^von aristocrat, an evident 


12 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


1Y8 

(to him) flirt of the most pronounced type, 
the flame for all butterflies, the woman who 
must regard men in general with almost a 
contempt commensurate with his own for 
women, should suddenly be revealed to him, 
under awful circumstances, as a graduate 
of the Harvard Annex with honors, to whom 
his science, acquired by a life-long study, 
was practically the conquest of a night — and 
a very dark, stoi'iny night at that. 

What an absurd travesty on cold human 
reason that this pair, acquainted with each 
other by some years of social intercourse, 
and through it all totally unattractive to 
each other, should be confronted by means 
of a stupendous freak of destiny, and like a 
flash of lightning discover that the by -word 
which each had discarded as unworthy of 
belief — love — had an actual place in the hu- 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


179 


man economy. “ Perhaps not love, after all, 
but destiny,” he argued, with a scientific 
man’s tenacity, “ which sometimes reveals 
two natures born to entwine.” 

Wheatstone invented a machine by which 
he measured the duration of a fiash of light- 
ning to be 1,200,000th part of a second. 
Owing to an optical illusion, it is commonly 
supposed to last a tenth part of a second, 
and by some a whole second. Did not the 
hero confess awhile back that there is no 
such thing as love except in fiction ; that 
fiction must assume the virtue if real life 
hath it not ? How humbled was Mr. Pegas- 
sus now, that in a time so brief as a flash of 
lightning, real life had provided a reason for 
the existence of the truest love, beside which 
in all fiction, perhaps, there was nothing to 
compare ! He was beaten on every point. 


180 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


Fact was stranger than fiction. Love was 
an actuality. The predicament of himself 
and Miss Douvre was a full reason for the 
existence of love. 

It was a strange spectacle, the lady on the 
promenade of the car of the Americus in 
riding habit, her hat in its place, her whip 
in hand as if ready to mount. The hurricane 
that swept the ship from the westward right 
down toward the massive brownstones and 
brick of the metropolis at a rate of ninety 
miles per hour, formed her environment. 
No effort was made to check the mad flight 
of the Americus now, only to direct it. The 
time was getting short before the sun should 
rise and expose the lady to scandal, or at 
least, annoying notoriety. 

Paint the picture, O ye Lores — the envi- 
ronment of hurricane above, a vast mass of 




,AS A 8TEAKGE SPECTACXE, THE lADT ON THE PEOMENADE OP THE 

rnTTl? ATUTP/RTmTS 



nr* , V - • *^ - k^JTi 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


181 


flooded city approaching beneath ; a back- 
ground for the lady, of aerostat and car, a 
mere speck in the maelstrom of elements. 
Yet this girl, by reason of her college- 
trained mind and superior intellect, had 
grasped in one short hour what was forever 
the despair of ‘Hhe flnest ” police de23art- 
ment of the world. In the faintest gray of 
dawn, a little state-room and a few techni- 
cal instruments had enabled her to read all 
that had happened that night, all that was 
happening, and all that was likely to hap- 
pen ; and she had read all that was in the 
heart of one master man from the one key, 
in effect that he was a gentleman. 

In that one hand-clasp this strange pair 
had read their future and temporarily dis- 
missed it. The escaping gas began to cause 
some compression of the great aerostat. 


182 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


“We could inflate the balloon, rise again 
and escape,’’ remarked the man, hoarsely, 
as he saw their terrible danger ahead, “ but 
that would result in all the world hearing 
the story and laughing at it as the very 
personification of all that is fictitious, an in- 
vention of some fertile mind for the shield- 
ing of your escapades.” 

“ Better death ! ” was the only answer she 
gave him. Her face showed a thrilling in- 
terest in the mad flight through air. 

“Jersey Palisades ! ” called the lookout. 

“ Drop the drag ! ” roared Pegassus. 

“Drag was lost in Central Park, sir,” 
bawled the captain. 

“ Drop the guy-rope, then ; it may catch.” 

The guy -rope was let out to a length of 
one hundred and fifty feet. Plenty of rope 
was left on the cylinder of the windlass so 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


183 


that the ship, if caught, should not be hauled 
taut and smashed. 

All looked below upon Jersey City to see 
the end of the rope knock over chimneys, 
cornices, and whatever it could stir, but it 
did not seem to catch. In an instant the 
Americus flew to the Hudson. 

“Let out more gas,” roared Pegassus. 
“ Stand by the windlass, captain, with two 
men.” 

“Aye, sir.” 

The huge collapsing aerostat swept across 
the Hudson and over the City of New York 
in almost a second’s time. Rain poured in 
floods ; the streets resembled rivers ; the 
hurricane seemed to have razed the projec- 
tions from all roofs. There was nothing 
which the guy rope could catch except the 
cables of the East River Bridge, and it was 


184 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


not desirable to be held in air unable to es- 
cape. 

There still was evidently fifty thousand 
cubic feet of gas in the bag. In that one 
second of mad plunge, Mr. Pegassus saw 
that instead of the guy-rope catching on the 
bridge, the balloon was doomed to collide 
with that structure. 

With a bound he sprang forward, grasped 
Miss Douvre in his arms and almost fell into 
the state-room with her. He slammed the 
door shut and locked it. At that instant, 
the great aerostat, still one-half inflated, 
moving at a rate of ninety miles per hour, 
struck the middle span of the East River 
Bridge near the New York tower, and ex- 
ploded with a frightful detonation, which, 
but for the roar of the hurricane, would 
have startled the entire city. The gold- 


THE BAGHELOn GIRL. 


186 


beater’s skin and ribbons were ground to 
fragments and blew away with the hurri- 
cane, no doubt, as not one was ever found. 
The car, stopped by the force of the explo- 
sion, rebounded and struck the river side of 
the tower and broke in pieces. The captain 
and his men were hurled against the cruel 
stones of the tall shaft of granite, their 
bodies, masses of jelly, being cast into the 
river, while torrents of rain washed the 
stains from the structure, leaving not one 
scintilla of record. The machinery, broken 
into thousands of pieces, sank forever from 
sight to be carried out to sea in the tide- 
swept channel. 

But how about the state-room ? Loosened 
from its supports, it fluttered to the bosom 
of the river. The aeronaut had pulled the 
knob, the parachute opened, and the wind 


186 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


bore it into the river, then swept it across 
to the Brooklyn side to the base of the East 
tower. Finding the girl in his arms, and 
each uninjured but terribly scared, he 
grasped the knob with all his strength, and 
closed the parachute. IHside, during those 
awful moments, the man and girl were 
clasped in each other’s arms with lips to- 
gether in one long farewell kiss, as if in the 
embrace of death. Neither had expected to 
escape, and more delicious rapture was com- 
pressed in that one moment than all their 
lives had known. 

“ Darling ! ” he whispered. 

She answered not, only clung to him the 
more madly, as if loath to be interrupted in 
their rapture, even for the sake of living 
thereafter. 

“We are all that is left of the Amerieus^ 


THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


187 


I fear,” he said, sadly, thinking of the awful 
fate of his men. 

It was still gray dawn of morning. Not 
a boat was stirring, not a car passing on the 
bridge ov'erhead. The terrible storm had 
stopped all traffic, and driven even the 
bridge attendants into safe shelter. No ears 
save theirs had heard the explosion ; no eyes 
save theirs had witnessed the frightful trag- 
edy. 

Independent of the storm, it was the sole 
period of inactivity of the day in New 
York, when the early milk-cart has ceased • 
to rattle on the pavement, having delivered 
its burden to the retailers, when nearly all 
hands have deserted the newspaper offices 
and reached home, when even the most early 
rising world is taking a last wink. 

Mr. Pegassus looked out of the window to 


188 


THE BACHELOR GIRL, 


see the drift of his vessel. It was stauding 
directly at the base of the Brooklyn tower 
where the west wind seemed to hold it fast. 
He cautiously opened the window and 
pulled the* state-room along the rocks and 
around to the dock, thence slowly along the 
dock into the slip. Finding a place on a 
level with his head, he cautiously and with 
exceeding difficulty assisted Miss Douvre 
through on to the dock, owing to the ca- 
reenings of his fragile boat, then passed out 
some little effects he wished to save, then 
followed in person. He forced open the 
door of the state-room; the little structure 
careened, filled with water and sank, carrying 
with it the very last evidence of the aerial 
trip. 

Hastily throwing a heavy oil-skin about 
their mutual persons, and raising an um- 




OCCASIONALLY CARRYING HER WHERE THE WATER LAY IN POOLS, 



I « 



THE BACHELOR GIRL. 


189 


brella, pretty much all of the effects saved 
from the wreck, he passed his arm about 
the girl inside the oil-skin, and started for 
the streets, occasionally carrying her where 
the water lay in pools. For every time he 
ferried her through the pools in this manner 
he exacted a considerable penalty of kisses, 
and there was no one abroad to dispute his 
right ] and as for the lady she did not seem 
to disapprove of the pools and storm at all. 

At the entrance of the bridge stood a lone 
coach. Into it he placed his charge, gave 
his orders and got inside, leaving the coach- 
man to do the remaining battle with the 
elements. Inside the vehicle it is possible 
this exhausted pair continued their love- 
making. I will not say. The world was 
still dozing and there were no witnesses. 

At one corner removed from the Douvre 


190 


THE BACBELOR OTRL. 


mansion, the pair alighted. The coachman 
was dismissed. All was quiet. No one was 
visible. Silently they walked to the arched 
entrance of the great house. The lady took 
her pass-key and inserted it in the lock 
of the iron latticed gate, though even then 
the man was clasping her in his strong em- 
brace. 

“ Can you manage it, darling ? ” he whis- 
pered. “ Every vestige of that aerial trip is 
destroyed save you and me.” 

“It shall be our secret for life,” she re- 
plied, softly. “ Yes, I can manage my part 
easily. I shall steal silently into bed, un- 
seen and unheard. To-morrow, if called 
upon, I shall deny all knowledge of the ac- 
cident. I do not believe, however, I shall 
be asked to explain. My father is not the 
man to ask such a thing, and he is the only 



•^1 


I 







THE BAVHELOR GIRL. 


191 


one having the right. Who, then, can gos- 
sip ? The sun seems to be struggling to 
rise, dear. You will come again to-day? ” 

“ Yes, my love.” 

“ And forever ? ” 

“ Forever.” 


THE ENDo 
























